'This Splitting of a Hair': The Magic of Miniaturisation in Timurid and Safavid Manuscripts of Nizami's Khamsa at the British Library

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This project would explore the mechanisms and meanings of miniaturisation in Persian manuscript painting, through the analysis of three copies of Nizami's Khamsa in the British Library: Add MS 25900, Or 6810, and Or 2265. These manuscripts cover a period stretching from the mid-15th century to 17th century 'replacement pages' and present a varied corpus in terms of physical size and pictorial style. The aesthetic and interpretative effects of the miniature would be explored through close visual analysis, by exploring the resonance between pictorial scale and Nizami's poetry, by consulting a range of primary textual sources and by situating these paintings in the context of the wider material culture of Early Modern Persia. Although questions of scale have been implicit in existing scholarship, this research would be the first sustained consideration of the subject.