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The Azerbaijani miniature art, along with national architecture, carpet weaving and
mugham, is among the most important phenomena and outstanding accomplishments
of the mediaeval Muslim culture. Despite centuries of development and evolution, it is
still much less researched as opposed to architecture, decorative or applied arts and
music thoroughly studied in a number of works and with the whole school of experts
and researchers involved.
The Azerbaijani miniature art implies a specific painting techniques developed in the
historic Azerbaijani lands, i.e. the areas belonging to Azerbaijan within the time span
since the 7th to the 19th centuries. The famous urban centers like Tabriz, Ardabil,
Urmiyye, Maragha, Derbend, Iravan, Barda, Shusha, Shamakhy, Baku, Nakhchivan and
others were among the cultural and political hubs of both the khanates (duchies of the
18-19
th centuries) and the unified Azerbaijani state in the 14-16th centuries. Multiple
evidences of this (e.g. facts, documents, maps, etc.) may be found in a number of the
world’s leading libraries and research centers.
However, fatal turns of the history and annexationist policy consistently pursued by
neighboring states substantially shrank the country’s borders splitting it in two parts
and dispersing its people known for a very peculiar culture, customs, traditions and
language of their own. Nonetheless, the culture, values and rich spiritual legacy of the
Azerbaijani nation survived to this very day.
Miniature art is far from being merely visual. Destined from its very outset for a very
limited audience, mainly the political elite, it is only available to a narrow circle of
researchers today. Due to being fragile and limited in the number of artifacts, miniature
art is not exhibited that often. Even in the museums, the most valuable pieces of this
art are rarely found in general exhibitions for they are vulnerable to light and humidity.
Another reason for this lack of publicity is that historically, miniature hubs were far
from being numerous, hence there were not too many artists capable of making copies
of the most renowned originals.
Despite the tiny dimensions size and restricted pool of users, the number of Azerbaijani
miniature art works exceeds by far the quantity of labor-intensive carpets and grand