Iskandernama efter Nizami - Gouache på papper - Indien - 1819

A fine miniature painting on paper (in gouache) heightened with gold, from a copy of the ISKANDERNAMA written in Kashmir, in AH 21 Rajab 1234 or 1819 AD by Nizami Ganjavi, (Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi). The miniature shows the poems hero, Alexander in battle with the Egyptians and defeating a knight while his army watches on.

Nizami Ganjavi, (Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi) - formal name Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī - was a 12th-century Muslim poet. He is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature. Given the poems popularity, it has been faithfully copied and masterfully illustrated many times since.

Nizami was born 1141 in the Seljuk empire (now Azerbaijan) and spent almost his entire life in Ganja. His reputation rests on his great Khamseh (“The Quintuplet”), a pentalogy of poems written in mas̄navī verse form (rhymed couplets) and totaling 30,000 couplets. Drawing inspiration from the Persian epic poets Ferdowsī and Sanāʾī, he proved himself the first great dramatic poet of Persian literature. The Iskandernama is the fourth part of the Khamsa of Nizami, a posthumous collection of five of Nizami's major works. It consists of two main and independent parts: the Sharaf-nama (Book of Glory) followed by the Iqbal-nama (Book of Fortune) (though the names are reversed in some copies). Both are written in rhymed couplets.

The miniature is in very good condition with vibrant colours and clear details on burnished paper.

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