Khamsa of Nizami made for Shah Tahmasp (Tabriz, 1539–43), British Library Or. 2265

This copy of Nizami's Khamsa was made for Shah Tahmasp in the Tabriz studios between 1539 and 1543; it is in the British Library as Or. 2265. ²

Norah Titley notes that the border paintings at the start of the manuscript are clearly original, while towards the end designs repeat and stencils must have been used. ¹ Nearly every page has a different motif, most margins filled with paintings in two tones of gold of bears, monkeys, tigers, lions, gazelles and snow leopards and of mythical creatures — dragon, simurgh, qilin — among trees, streams, birds and ribbon clouds. ² Titley sees in them the Iranian love of nature and the complete absorption of earlier Chinese elements. ²

Titley compares it with the Khamsa of Nizami completed for the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1595 (Or. 12208), whose borders, though much influenced by Tabriz work, introduce Indian animals and birds. ² She suggests that the circular "rolling" arabesque of Ottoman manuscripts may have been inspired by a "whirling" arabesque in this manuscript. ³