Prince Baysunghur, Before and After: Timurid Manuscripts in Context, a two-day international symposium to be held in mid-September 2021. It celebrates the 600-year anniversary of the first manuscript produced in the Timurid prince’s Herati library-atelier. It will also be the inaugural symposium of the Persian Manuscript Association, co-hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the University of South Carolina.
This symposium brings together scholars of Baysunghur’s era and beyond. It will explore the literary and artistic patronage undertaken by the prince, its antecedents, and the impact of his atelier’s output on the patronage and artistic production of later rulers. As such, it will cover a broad spectrum of topics, periods and regions, from Jalayirid Iran to the early modern Persianate world at large, and cross a number of disciplinary boundaries.