LISTEN TO THE FLUTE: TIMURID MUSIC AND ITS TRANSMISSIONS ACROSS THE PERSIANATE WORLD
The Persian Manuscripts Association (PMA) is pleased to announce its second international conference on Persian Studies, titled “Listen to the Flute: Timurid Music and its Transmissions Across the Persianate World.”
This interdisciplinary event will focus on the intricate and complex history of musical exchange, patronage, and practice within the Persianate world, with a particular focus on the Timurid period (15th century) and its enduring influence during the following centuries in Safavid Iran, Ottoman Anatolia, Mughal India, and Shaybanid Transoxiana.
For the first time, this conference will convene leading scholars in the field to explore the historical, social, and political contexts that shaped musical practices across the Persianate world. It will examine the evolution of music in the courts and urban centres of Iran, Central Asia, the Ottoman Empire, and Mughal India. Additionally, the conference will delve into the sociocultural impact of music, addressing its theoretical foundations, performance traditions, and the patronage systems that sustained and transformed the musical landscape.
FROM MANUSCRIPT TO CARPET: THE TALKING TREE MOTIF IN THE SERVICE OF SAFAVID SUFI DISCOURSE
The presentation will highlight the formal and conceptual interrelations among two inscribed grave rugs (preserved in Lisbon, Gulbenkian Museum, Inv. T113; and Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Inv. 1953.24); three dispersed illuminated folios of Jāmī’s Yusuf va Zuleykhā and Sa’dī’s Būstān (introduced by Christie’s, 2012 Live Auction 6537; and 2010 Live Auction 7871); and an illustrated manuscript of Niẓāmī’s Khamseh (Hazine 788), all attributed to Safavid workshops. Central to this exploration is the motif of the Talking Tree, which emerges as a dominant visual element across these works.
The discussion will focus on how this decorative motif, the literature, and the woven words interact, and how the motif evolves into a symbol that serves the Sufi discourse within the Safavid Shi’i context.
Dr Roxana Zenhari
Dr Roxana Zenhari is a historian of Islamic art, specialising in Persian visual art with a focus on manuscript culture. Her research explores the interrelation of text and image, and their connection to the dominant cultural and political discourses of the era.
She has published her dissertation and numbers of articles on Inju manuscripts, including Samak-e Ayyar (2014) and Inju Shahnameh manuscripts (2018,2020), and continues her research on the transition from manuscript culture to lithographed books.
She completed her Ph.D. in Iranian Studies at Georg-August University in 2012, where she is now affiliated as a lecturer.
22 May 2025, 5 – 6.30 pm GMT
Online Lecture on Zoom
Zoom Registration Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/uaISVh9MQBqot4fLvTx2eA
ARTISTIC INNOVATION AT THE LIBRARY OF PRINCE BAYSUNGHUR
Dr Shiva Mihan
Convenor: Professor Anna Contadini
ReSIA
(Research Seminar in Islamic Art)
Thursday 8 May 2025, 18:00h
Khalili Lecture Theatre – SOAS, University of London
Timurid prince Baysunghur (1397–1433) established his royal library and atelier (kitabkhana) in Herat circa 1420. In the brief but prolific period before his untimely death, the library produced over thirty manuscripts and advanced the arts of the book. Under his patronage, significant advancements were made in calligraphy, illumination, textual editing, mise-en-page, and album making (muraqqaʿ).
This paper introduces the structure and ambitions of Baysunghur’s kitabkhana, offering a reassessment of the oft-cited project report, the Arzadasht, and drawing on extant manuscripts and primary sources. Special attention is given to the Jung-i Marathi (Book of Elegies), a hitherto overlooked source that sheds light on the intellectual and aesthetic ambitions of the Baysunghur’s atelier.
Dr Shiva Mihan is Curator of Islamic Collections (Persianate World) at the British Museum. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2018, where her dissertation Timurid Manuscript Production: The Scholarship and Aesthetics of Prince Baysunghur’s Royal Library (1420–1435) was awarded the Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies in 2019. She has held curatorial and academic positions at leading institutions, including a postdoctoral fellowship as Curator of Islamic Art at the Harvard Art Museums (2018–2020) and a subsequent fellowship in Islamic Art at the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She has also taught Islamic art as a visiting professor at Washington University in St Louis. Mihan’s research centres on the history of Islamic manuscript production, artistic patronage, and the transmission of texts in the Persianate world. She is currently also the founder and President of the Persian Manuscripts Association. Her forthcoming monograph, Patronage and Manuscript Production in Timurid Herat, offers a new reading of manuscript culture under Prince Baysunghur. Bridging art history and intellectual history, the book explores the material and textual richness of manuscripts produced in Herat during the early 15th century, underscoring the often-overlooked significance of their literary content.
A REVIEW OF EARLY MANUSCRIPTS OF NASR ALLAH MUNSHI’S KALILA VA DIMNA
This presentation will focus on early manuscripts of the Persian version of Kalīla and Dimna—a book of (mostly) animal fables that is a classic of premodern world literature—by Naṣrallāh Munshī, written at the Ghaznavid court ca. 540/1145–46. Naṣrallāh’s text is considered one of the foundational works of classical Persian prose literature.
Among its noteworthy characteristics is that a few very early manuscript copies have survived, the oldest of which is dated 551/1156. In fact, although this Persian Kalīla and Dimna is based on the Arabic version attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (ca. 750 CE), the very earliest extant copies of the Arabic are more recent, from the seventh/thirteenth century! The talk will discuss the curious phenomenon of the well-preserved codicology of Naṣrallāh Munshī’s work, showing example pages from three or four early manuscripts (as time permits).
Unsurprisingly, these Persian manuscripts from the sixth/twelfth and seventh/thirteenth century have interesting features of their own, in terms of orthography, calligraphic style, text layout, and more.
Dr Theodore Beers
Theodore Beers (PhD, University of Chicago, 2020) is a historian of classical Persian literature, with particular interests in premodern literary exchange between Persian and Arabic, and in the development of digital corpora and tools to strengthen the study of these traditions. He is currently based at Drexel University in Philadelphia as a research software engineer, and he also maintains an affiliation with the Kalīla and Dimna Project at the Freie Universität Berlin.
17 April 2025, 5 – 7 pm BST
Online Lecture on Zoom
NEW RELEASE: HAFIZ SA‘D & THE COURT OF PRINCE BAYSUNGHUR
By Shiva Mihan
Hafiz Sa‘d & the Court of Prince Baysunghur, written in Persian, is a pioneering study by Shiva Mihan which unveils an overlooked manuscript from the royal library of Prince Baysunghur in 15th-century Herat. He was one of the greatest patrons of Persian art and manuscript production in the Timurid period.
About the Author
Shiva Mihan earned her PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge in 2018, with a prize-winning dissertation on Timurid manuscript production. She was a Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the HarvardArt Museums, and a Fellow of School of Historical studies at the Institute forAdvanced Study, Princeton. She taught Islamic art at Washington University inSt. Louis, before she joined the British Museum as the Curator of IslamicCollections (Persianate World) in 2024. Shiva Mihan is the founder and president of the Persian Manuscripts Association. She has authored numerous articles on Persian art and culture, with a special focus on the Timurid period.
This publication is a must-read for scholars and enthusiasts of Persian manuscript traditions, Timurid history, and literary heritage.
Book is available for purchase on danyarpub.ir.
PERSIAN MANUSCRIPT CATALOGUES IN CAMBRIDGE, A DOOR INTO DIGITAL HUMANITIES
The talk explores the use of computational methods for manuscript descriptions. It begins with an overview of Cambridge’s Persian manuscript collection in the context of UK collections. The speaker discusses how enhancing access to these collections motivated the use of computational techniques on descriptive data. A case study using data from the FIHRIST Union Catalogue of Islamicate Manuscripts is presented. The talk concludes by emphasising the significance of open access, standards, and data provenance in such research.
Yasmin Faghihi
Yasmin Faghihi is Head of the Near and Middle Eastern Department at Cambridge University Library. She is the editor of FIHRIST, the online union catalogue for manuscripts from the Islamicate world and chairs the Board of Directors. She has been leading on using and promoting standardised practices in text encoding for manuscript description and teaching to foster awareness about compatible approaches to data creation and use. Her work with the Middle Eastern and African manuscript collections has evolved around Islamic codicology including paper-making and distribution and the history of collections and collecting. Her Digital Humanities interests focus on the exchange of knowledge both as a historical and contemporary phenomenon, and how DH methodologies can impact the recognition of cultural diversity and offer new approaches to analysing cross-disciplinary frameworks.
13 March 2025, 5 – 7 pm
Online Lecture on Zoom
STUDIES ON PERSIAN PAPER IN MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS OF THE MALEK NATIONAL LIBRARY
This lecture, which will be delivered in Persian, focuses on the study of Persian paper used in the manuscript collections of the Malek National Library.
The talk will be presented by Noshad Rokni, head of the Library Department at the Malek National Library and Museum since 2024.
Noshad Rokni
Noshad Rokni is a distinguished expert in manuscript preservation, codicology, and Persian paper studies. Currently serving as the Head of the Library Department at the Malek National Library and Museum since 2024, he previously led the Cultural Information and Technical Preservation Department at the same institution for over a decade. Holding a Master’s degree in Restoration and Iranian Studies with a specialisation in Codicology, Rokni has dedicated his career to the study and preservation of historical manuscripts. As an instructor, he has contributed to multiple courses on codicology, paper studies, museology, and manuscript preservation. He has written over twenty publications on manuscripts and restoration.
20 February 2025, 5 – 7 pm
Online Lecture on Zoom
COBALT AND GOLD: RE-EXAMINING LAJVARDINA WARES AND LINKS TO PERSIAN MANUSCRIPT PAINTING
This lecture draws on some of the key themes explored in my recently completed monograph on lajvardina wares. There are significantly more tiles than vessels, and they have been subject to far less restoration an overpainting in most cases and will be the main focus. Striking as the tiles are, they are almost all decontextualised. By looking at some of the motifs seen not only on other tiles, but also on lajvardina vessels and other types of glazed ceramics, as well as other media, it can be possible to get a clearer idea of how lajvardina wares fit into the wider Ilkhanid aesthetic. In addition, a series of manuscript paintings will be examined in order to understand how the tiles may have appeared in their original architectural context, and to investigate if the ceramics and manuscripts can be used to better understand both media.
Dr Richard Piran McClary
Dr Richard Piran McClary is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of York. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2015. He has lectured extensively on a range of subjects related to medieval Islamic art and architecture, and has conducted fieldwork in India, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and across the Middle East. He has published three monographs with EUP; Rum Seljuq Architecture 1170-1220. The Patronage of Sultans (2017) and Medieval Monuments of Central Asia. Qarakhanid Architecture of the 11th and 12th Centuries (2020), and Mina’i Ware: A Reassessment and Comprehensive Study of Iranian Polychrome Overglaze Wares through Sherds (2024). He has published articles in numerous journals, including: Muqarnas, Iran, and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. He has served as a trustee and the Research Director for the British Institute of Persian Studies, and is managing editor of the Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture.
23 January 2025, 5 – 7 pm
SWLT, Paul Webley Building, SOAS University of London
In-person and Online
For More Information:
AN UNIDENTIFIED PRINCELY EDITION OF THE TĀRĪKH-I VAṢṢĀF
Online ZOOM lecture by Dr. Shiva Mihan | Washington University in St. Louis
Please register with: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t4b0-0otQBiO7isUUrVhfw
BAYSUNGHUR’S WORKSHOP: EXHIBITION OF MASTEPIECES FROM BAYSUNGHUR’S LIBRARY
Malek National Library and Museum, 21 November 2023.
The event includes talks by Abolala Soudavar and Dr Shiva Mihan.
This is an in-person event only.
VISUALISING PERSIAN HISTORY: THE ILLUSTRATION OF PERSIAN MANUSCRIPT HISTORIES
The talk will take place on Tuesday 21st of November 2023, 6:16 pm (CET). [NOTICE THE TIME CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS WEBINARS]
More information: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veranstaltungen/event-details/visualising-persian-history-the-illustration-of-persian-manuscript-histories
To participate online, please register at https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_17rkdW40Tvi9AWD-GkAtnQ#/registration
COLLATION CULTURE IN PRE-MODERN ISLAM: THE MANUSCRIPT TRADITION OF IBN ABĪ UṢAYBIʿA’S ʿUYŪN AL-ANBĀʾ FĪ ṬABAQĀT AL-AṬIBBĀʾ
The talk will take place on Tuesday 17th of October 2023, 5 pm (CET).
More information:
Please register at
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jtYw9_Y_TXCkopYHFvdnCw
Call for Collaboration
Website Manager, Persian Manuscripts Association (unpaid)
The Persian Manuscripts Association (PMA) is seeking a volunteer Website Manager to expand and maintain its website (http://persianmanuscripts.org/). The PMA is a new international academic membership organization that aims to support and promote research on Persianate manuscript studies. The Association hopes to organize regular events, publish new research and facilitate increased communication and cooperation across its membership base. The PMA website is a crucial space for the implementation and maintenance of these aims, and its functionality and appearance are of the utmost importance.
The Website Manager’s responsibilities include:
⦁ Developing a distinctive and functional website for the organization, which will include facilitating and maintaining the private membership list, and managing cloud storage for large files;
⦁ Identifying, responding to and troubleshooting website issues and security breaches;
⦁ Ensuring the website, PMA email accounts and membership information are protected by appropriate security measures;
⦁ Monitoring website traffic and recommending improvements where necessary;
⦁ Collaborating with other team members, such as the Publicity Officer, to ensure that the website aligns with wider PMA objectives.
Essential requirements of the post holder include:
⦁ Experience in constructing and maintaining WordPress websites;
⦁ Familiarity with setting up and using cloud spaces;
⦁ Understanding of search engine optimization;
⦁ Experience with image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop;
⦁ Ability to take initiative and solve problems independently;
⦁ Excellent written English and attention to detail.
No knowledge of the academic field is required, but familiarity with Arabic script is desirable.
The role is home-based and flexible. It is expected that the post will not require more than three hours per week on average. While the role is currently unpaid, this is an exciting opportunity to become involved with a new academic organization and help shape its growth and development on the ground level. We hope that, as the PMA expands, we will be able to remunerate the post holder accordingly.
Interested candidates should submit their CV and a covering letter that demonstrates how they meet the essential requirements outlined above to info@persianmanuscripts.org by Sunday 30 July 2023. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide two references at a later date and to attend a brief Zoom interview.
Publicity Officer, Persian Manuscripts Association (unpaid)
The Persian Manuscripts Association (PMA) is seeking a volunteer Publicity Officer to manage its social media accounts and promote its activities. The PMA is a new international academic membership organization that aims to support and promote research on Persianate manuscript studies. The Association hopes to organize regular events, publish new research and facilitate increased communication and cooperation across its membership base. The PMA’s social media pages are vital channels for the promotion of these aims and activities.
The Publicity Officer’s responsibilities include:
⦁ Developing a creative and engaging social media presence for the PMA Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts;
⦁ Managing the day-to-day handling of these accounts and regularly updating these appropriately with relevant content;
⦁ Monitoring social media accounts and recommending improvements where necessary;
⦁ Assisting in the marketing and promotion of PMA events via direct mailing lists;
⦁ Collaborating with other team members, such as the Website Manager, to ensure that social media and mailing list content aligns with wider PMA objectives.
Essential requirements of the post holder include:
⦁ Experience in maintaining and growing public-facing social media accounts;
⦁ Experience in writing and editing marketing copy for a variety of platforms;
⦁ Understanding of algorithms and search engine optimization;
⦁ Some knowledge of Islamic art history;
⦁ Ability to work constructively and professionally with a variety of stakeholders;
⦁ Excellent written English and attention to detail.
Familiarity with manuscript studies and Arabic script is desirable.
The role is home-based and flexible. It is expected that the post will not require more than three hours per week on average. While the role is currently unpaid, this is an exciting opportunity to become involved with a new academic organization and help shape its growth and development on the ground level. We hope that, as the PMA expands, we will be able to remunerate the post holder accordingly.
Interested candidates should submit their CV and a covering letter that demonstrates how they meet the essential requirements outlined above to info@persianmanuscripts.org by Sunday 30 July 2023. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide two references at a later date and to attend a brief Zoom interview.
“The Mongols’ Baghdad: Knowledge Transmission Through Manuscript Cultures Before and After The Conquest.”
1st-3rd December 2022, IMAFO Library, Hollandstrasse 11-13, 3rd Floor, 1020 Vienna.
2 December 2022, 9.00 – 17.30
Online registration:
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/…/WN_M2L-Kit-SX2K3PmV62B_RA
Day 2:
3 December 2022, 10.00 – 17.00
Online registration:
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/…/WN_np7gCAUqTj6at12WmeIijw
Timurid Manuscripts in Context
Call for Papers
The Persian Manuscripts Association invites book chapter proposals for its inaugural book publication – an edited volume concerning Prince Baysunghur’s patronage and manuscript production to be published by Brill.
For more details download the PDF here.
Shamsa: The Journal of the Persian Manuscripts Association
Call for Papers
The Persian Manuscripts Association (PMA) is delighted to announce the launch of their new online, open-access journal, Shamsa: The Journal of the Persian Manuscripts Association. We invite submissions to be published in the inaugural 2024 volume. For more details download the PDF here.
Prince Baysunghur, Before & After:
Timurid Manuscripts in Context
The inaugural symposium of the Persian Manuscripts Association celebrates the 600th anniversary of the first manuscript produced at the royal library-atelier of the Timurid Prince Baysunghur (1399-1433) in Herat. Prince Baysunghur, Before and After: Timurid Manuscripts in Context, is a two-day international symposium, held on 5-6 November 2021, and hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
Baysunghur’s patronage of manuscript production is significant for exhibiting a high artistic refinement in the arts of the book, but the patron was also actively involved in the scholarly aspect of the works to be reproduced. He commanded editions and the preservation of texts in a variety of fields, notably history, ethics and literature.
This symposium brings together scholars and international experts in a number of disciplines to explore the connoisseurship and patronage undertaken by the prince, the aesthetic of his atelier’s output, their antecedents in the Jalayirid period, and the production of literary editions in his library.
The full program for this event can be seen here. Register in advance for this webinar here. After registering, you will receive an email containing information about joining the webinar.
For additional information please contact Shiva Mihan at smihan@ias.edu.
Webinar series: pre-modern Islamic manuscripts
This is the first Webinar series organised by the NoMansLand research project (FWF Y 1232) dedicated to the study of Islamic manuscripts in pre-modern Iran and Central Asia. The project aims to reconstruct aspects of the production, circulation and consumption of written knowledge during the Mongol and early Timurid periods in Iran and Central. The webinar series presents eight lectures to this effect by world-leading scholars, each delving into different aspects of manuscript studies. It aims to promote research on handwritten material and explore its potential impact on the study of this region during the 13th – 15th centuries. The webinar endeavors to raise awareness of the historical value that surviving codices from the Mongol period have in shaping our understanding of Central Asian and Iranian cultural history. The lectures have been scheduled throughout the academic year 2021-2022. They are free of charge, but registration will be required (registration will be announced for each lecture).
22 September 2021, 5 pm
Prof. Shahzad Bashir | Brown University, USA
13 October 2021, 5 pm
Prof. Javad Abassi | Ferdawsi University in Mashhad, IR Iran
17 November 2021, 5 pm
Dr. Joep Lameer | University of Leiden, The Netherlands
15 December 2021, 5 pm
Dr. Francesca Leoni | Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
23 February 2022, 5 pm
Dr. Hadel Jarada | Institute of Iranian Studies, ÖAW, Austria
16 March 2022, 5 pm
Dr. Stefanie Brinkmann | Saxony Academy of Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
13 April 2022, 5 pm
Akram Khabibullaev | Indiana University, USA
11 May 2022, 5 pm
Dr. Nourane Ben Azzouna | Université de Strasbourg, France
more information:
13-14 July 2021, Oxford
10.45am-4.15pm BST (13 July)
11am-5.30pm BST (14 July)
Online
Free, book in advance Book now
Persian Arts of the Book Conference
About the event
‘Persian Arts of the Book’ gathers scholars from around the world with expert curators from Oxford and beyond to reflect on the Persian manuscript tradition. In a series of short presentations and thematic panel discussions we will examine the poetry, history, and artistic expression contained in these treasures, and the materials and crafts that contributed to making the manuscripts, as well as the history and science of their preservation. Starting with a focus on the history of collections now at the Bodleian Library, the international speakers represent the state of the field of Persian manuscript studies today.
Speakers:
Nasrin Askari, Arezou Azad, Anita Chowdry, Peyvand Firouzeh, Cailah Jackson, Gulfishan Khan, Shiva Mihan, Adeela de Unger, David Roxburgh (keynote), Karin Scheper and Ilse Sturkenboom
Booking information:
Registration closes at 12pm on 8 July
To join the Zoom meeting, please register here.
When you have booked your place, the ticketing system will send you an automated confirmation.
A link to access the online event will be sent by the morning of the event to the email address associated with your booking.
If you do not receive this link please email: bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk