King Sulayman Enthroned

The illustration at the center of the folio depicts King Sulayman (Solomon). The story of King Sulayman is a parable retold and depicted many times in Islamic literature and art. Before the king are his vizier, Asef, and a group of jinns and demons, with whom King Sulayman had the power to speak. The attention to detail, the figures’ gesticulations that are indicative of ongoing conversation, the rejection of modeling and perspectival space, and the use of opaque, bright colors are all typical of Islamic miniature painting. The dark stream at the bottom was painted with silver, which has oxidized.The mushroomy rocky forms and the curly clouds in the background, however, as well as the use of washes for their depiction, reflect inspiration from Chinese painting.

This entire manuscript page, or folio, is a pastiche of an unrelated 16th century painting and texts assembled together in the 20th century. While the the painting is very good, particularly the figures, the gazelles and tree at the top were probably overpainted, over gold that was also added later. Golden sky is not typical in Persian painting of the period, but the gold and the colors and style are characteristic of Central Asian painitngs in a Persianate style, probably from the Uzbek kingdom of Bukhara. The text on the verso relates to King Sulayman, and may have been selected as a verso to add to the painting, which probably represents King Sulayman, often shown enthroned with a flaming halo and shown with jinn and demons. The text of the recto, at the top and bottom of the painting, is completely unrelated: poems by the Persian poet Hafez (1325-1390).