Walters Ms. W.678, Single leaf from Mantiq al-tayr by Farid al-din `Attar

W.678

Single leaf from Mantiq al-tayr by Farid al-din `Attar

Vernacular: منطق الطير

Authority name: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn, ca. 1230

Supplied name: Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, d. 618 AH / 1221 CE

Name, in vernacular: فريد الدين عطار

This Timurid leaf depicting a funeral procession is from a copy of Manṭiq al-ṭayr (The language of the birds) by the Persian Sufi poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 618 AH / 1221 CE). It represents a son’s lamentation at his father’s funeral. The parent manuscript was likely produced in Timurid Herat or Bukhara in the late ninth century AH / fifteenth CE. There are fewer than ten known illustrated copies of the Manṭiq al-ṭayr. In the bottom right corner is a later attribution to the famous Persian artist Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE). The painting is surrounded by a biscuit-colored, gold-sprinkled border. The Walters' leaf is comparable to the same scene illustrated in the copy housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (63.210.35).

Late 9th century AH / 15th CE

Herat or Bukhara

As-written name: Bihzād

Name, in vernacular: بهزاد

Note: Inscription is a later attribution to Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE)

Leaf

Historical

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.

Paper

Gold-sprinkled border

Foliation: Not applicable

19.0 cm wide by 28.5 cm high

1. Image: 19.0 cm wide by 28.5 cm high

1. Title: Manṭiq al-ṭayr
2. Author: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn, ca. 1230
3. Artist: Bihzād
4. Hand note: Written in nastaʿlīq script
5. Decoration note: Biscuit-colored, gold-sprinkled border (trimmed)

fol. W.678a:

1. 
2. Title: Son’s lamentation at his father’s funeral
3. Form: Illustration
4. Label: In the bottom right corner is a later attribution to the famous Persian artist Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE). The inscription reads ʿamal-i Bihzād … [?].

fol. W.678b:

1. 
2. Title: Son’s lamentation at his father’s funeral (back)
3. Form: Back

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

Lukens, Marie G. "The Language of the Birds: The Fifteenth-Century Miniatures." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25, no. 9 (1967): 331-332, fig. 23.

Canby, Sheila R. The Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi Abbasi of Isfahan. (London: Azimuth, 1996), 235, fig. 30.

Bahari, Ebadollah. Bihzad: Master of Persian Painting. London: I. B. Tauris, 1996.

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.