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By the beginning of the 16th century, the major political event for the whole Muslim world was just
about to happen. After a series of impressive victories, young and vigorous Shah Ismayil Khatai was
approximating the culmination of his royal career i.e. his coronation in Tabriz in 1502. This was
the time when the Tabriz style featuring the previous century was still dominant at the royal court
of Shah Ismayil the Safavi. Yagub-bey’s miniatures to Khamse made during that period are a vivid
proof of this. Shah Ismayil got hold of a manuscript that was still unfinished by the time
Yagub-bey passed away. Pursuant to the royal order, eleven miniatures created by local artists from
the court studios were added to the manuscript. One of the authors of the newly-added works was
a young Azerbaijani artist named Sultan Muhammad.
In the early 1520’s, Shah Ismayil ordered the most outstanding illustrated manuscript ever known
in the Muslim world,
Shah-nameh
for his son and successor Tahmasib. This manuscript, also known
as the Tahmasib Shah-nameh (former collection of A. Haughton), clearly indicates the inclination
of Tahmasib to his father’s taste. Sultan Muhammad’s style was already dominant in the early Safavi
court art studio and library (kitabkhane).
No doubt, the splendid Shah-nameh involving majority of the kitabkhane artists for a number of
years, became the most colossal work managed by Sultan Muhammad. The margins of text pages
were adorned with multiple and very elaborate ornamental motifs accompanied by 258 miniature
paintings, enormous in size compared to traditional dimensions. In the meantime, Sultan
Muhammad was working at another masterpiece, The Reign of Keyumars, a miniature painting
adored by multiple artists.
Back in the mid-16th century, in his foreword to the Bahram-Mirza Album, calligrapher Doust
Muhammad, the chief of the Tabriz kitabkhane, referred to Sultan Muhammad as ‘the century’s
leading light’ whose
Scene with People Dressed in Leopard Hide
was a true masterpiece next to
which other artists ‘bowed down from shame’. This list of the artist’s magnificent works may be
followed by other masterpieces such as
Zohhak’s Execution
,
Sadeh Fest
,
etc. No other miniaturist
could ever accomplish such a unique combination of extremely high emotions with excellent
technique and maturity so important for the leading court artist. Meykhane scene for
Diwan
by
Khafiz (the 1530’s) , as well Sam Mirza’s Majlis painting to the same manuscript are an evidence
of that.
Unlike the Tahmasib Shah-nameh, miniature paintings to
Khamse
(1539-1543),
the collection of five
remarkable poems by Nizami Ganjavi, an outstanding Azerbaijani poet and philosopher, nowadays
cherished at the British Library in London, feature the harmony and coherence. That being said,
completeness and plentitude of works typical of the two best decades of the kitabkhane’s work on
Shah-nameh
(
i.e. the 1520’s-1530’s) are missing here.
The leading lights in miniature art were involved in illustrating Nizami Ganjavi’s
Khamse.
Some of
their works became models for the centuries to come. A number of these works are signed by Sultan
Muhammad, Mirza Ali, Mir Seyidali, Agha Mirak and Muzaffar Ali.
Rapture of Muhammad the Prophet
by Sultan Muhammad, elaborate as it is, has an enormous
emotional impact indeed. An extremely rich selection and combination of colors is so delightful due
to its harmony and contrast leading to the state of exaltation. The miniature painting
Khosrov
Watching Shirin While Bathing
,
one of Sultan Muhammad’s works, presents a true miracle in terms
of elegance and breathtaking selection of colors. An outstanding Azerbaijani artist with encyclopedic
knowledge, Sultan Muhammad was highly recognized by historians as a person who had left an