Laila and Majnun at School - 1431

Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja

This splendid painting is from a manuscript of the frequently illustrated story of Laila and Majnun by the twelfth-century Persian poet Nizami. It was commissioned by the Timurid prince Baisunghur of Herat, one of the greatest bibliophiles in all Islamic history, who gathered at his court the very best painters from Baghdad, Tabriz, Shiraz, and Samarkand to illustrate his matchless collection of books. This illustration depicts Qais, the future "mad one" (Majnun) for love, and Laila, his beloved, who meet for the first time as children at a mosque school. The painting underscores the closely related aesthetics of figural painting and abstract calligraphy, architectural tiling and royal carpet weaving in traditional Islamic civilization, united here in a visual symphony of flat but dramatically colored patterns. The scene depicts the child lovers framed in the mosque's prayer niche in order to emphasize their mystical status. These visual conventions of Persian art, usually laden, as here, with Neoplatonic symbolism, crystallized in the royal cities of Tabriz and then Herat at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and endured for another 250 years in the court paintings of Iran, Turkey, and India.

Our prints are made-to-order using the revered Giclée printing method, ensuring exceptional detail and vibrant colors. We prioritize quality by using archival grade pigment-based inks and acid-free, heavyweight 300 GSM photo paper for longevity. Each print is seamlessly framed in custom-made, durable wooden framing with shatter-resistant and UV shielding artist-grade acrylic. Your art will arrive ready to easily hang, be admired and hold its vibrancy for decades.

Medium
Beautifully printed on our rich matte-finished heavy 300GSM Giclée paper using only archival inks. Our substrates will last without fading for decades.

Frame
Hand crafted and made-to-order natural wood or painted wood frame.