Interwoven Lovers: Safavid Narrative Silks Depicting Characters from the Khamsa

Abstract

In the twelfth century, Persian language poet Niẓāmī Ganjavī (1141-1209) authored a quintet of epic poems on five subjects, known as the Khamsa or “Five Treasures.” Two of Nizami’s works in the collection are romances based on legendary figures whose tales were grounded in historical events: the love story of Sasanian king Khusrau Parvīz and Armenian princess Shīrīn, and that of Bedouin beauty Laylā and her admirer Qays, aka “Majnūn” [Ar. “madman”]. In the centuries following Nizami’s codification of the characters, several illustrated manuscripts of the Khamsa were produced by workshops for the ruling classes throughout greater Iran, some by later poets who composed their own Khamsa manuscripts. By the turn of the sixteenth century, scenes representing a few pivotal events in the respective narratives had become part of the cycle of illustration, and well known among the educated elite. Between 1550 and 1650, silk luxury textiles depicting these scenes were produced, possibly representing royal as well as independent textile workshop manufacture. A group of eleven different signed and unsigned textile designs depicting scenes from Khusrau and Shīrīn and Laylā and Majnūn are the basis of this study. The textiles will be examined alongside contemporary Khamsa manuscript illustrations, evaluated as a group and individually, and analyzed for their iconological properties based on patronage and consumerism.