The construction of fort Khavarnaq, c. 1494-1495 C.E.

Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād Herawī, also known as Kamal al-din Bihzad or Kamaleddin Behzad (c. 1450 – c. 1535) was a Persian miniaturist and head of the royal ateliers in Herat and Tabriz during the late Timurid and early Safavid periods. Download high resolution version (1576x2112, 363 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1576x2112, 363 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Fortifications (Latin fortis, strong, and facere, to make) are military constructions designed for defensive warfare. ... Court of the Friday Mosque in Herāt. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Court of the Friday Mosque in Herāt. ... Tabriz City Hall, built in 1934, by Arfaol molk, with the aid of German engineers. ... Timurid can refer to several entities, related to Timur: Timurid Dynasty Timurid Empire Timurid Emirates This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Safavids were a long-lasting Turkic-speaking Iranian dynasty that ruled from 1501 to 1736 and first established Shiite Islam as Persias official religion. ...

Career and style

Behzad is the most famous of Persian miniature painters, though he is more accurately understood as the director of a workshop (or kitabkhāna) producing manuscript illuminations in a style he conceived.^[1][2][3] This style is highly geometric in design, and utilises Sufi symbolism and symbolic colour to convey meaning. Behzad also introduced greater naturalism to some elements of Persian painting, particularly in the depiction of more individualised figures and the use of realistic gestures and expressions. Safavid era Miniature painting kept at Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan. ... In the strictest definition of illuminated manuscript, only manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, like this miniature of Christ in Majesty from the Aberdeen Bestiary (folio 4v), would be considered illuminated. ... Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ...

Behzad's most famous works include "The Seduction of Yusuf" from Sa'di's Bustan of 1488, and paintings from the British Library's Nizami manuscript of 1494-95 - particularly scenes from Layla and Majnun and the Haft Paykar (see accompanying image). The attribution of specific paintings to Behzad himself is often problematic (and, many academics would now argue, unimportant),^[1] but the majority of works commonly attributed to him date from 1488 to 1495. Tomb of Sadi, Shiraz, Iran. ... Bustan is a joint Israeli-Palestinian non-profit organization of eco-builders, architects, academics, and farmers who promot environmental and social justice in Israel/Palestine. ... External links The Legend of Leyli and Majnun Nizami, Jamal al-Din Ilyas. ... Majnun in the wilderness Layla and Majnun (ليلى ومجنون), or Leyli and Madjnun, is a classical Middle Eastern love story. ...

Biography

Behzad lived and worked in Herat (in present day Afghanistan) under the Timurids, and later in Tabriz under the Safavid dynasty. An orphan, he was raised by the prominent painter Mirak Naqqash, and was a protege of Mir Ali Shir Nava'i. His major patrons in Herat were the Timurid sultan Husayn Bayqarah (ruled 1469 - 1506) and other amirs in his circle. After the fall of the Timurids, he was employed by Shah Ismail I Safavi in Tabriz, where, as director of the royal atelier, he had a decisive impact on the development of later Safavid painting. Court of the Friday Mosque in Herāt. ... Tabriz City Hall, built in 1934, by Arfaol molk, with the aid of German engineers. ... Husayn Bayqarah (1438 - May 4, 1506), was a Timurid ruler of Herat from 1469 to his death, with a brief interruption in 1470. ... Entrance to the emirs palace in Bukhara. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Roxburgh, David J., “Kamal al-Din Bihzad and Authorship in Persianate Painting,” Muqarnas, Vol. XVII, 2000, pp. 119-146.
2. ^ Lentz, Thomas, “Changing Worlds: Bihzad and the New Painting,” Persian Masters: Five Centuries of Painting, ed., Sheila R. Canby, Bombay, 1990, pp. 39–54.
3. ^ Lentz, Thomas, and Lowry, Glenn D., Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989.

References

• Brend, Barbara, Islamic Art, London, 1991.
• Chapman, Sarah, “Mathematics and Meaning in the Structure and Composition of Timurid Miniature Painting”, Persica, Vol. XIX, 2003, pp. 33-68.
• Gray, Basil, Persian Painting, London, 1977.
• Hillenbrand, Robert, Islamic Art and Architecture, London, 1999.
• Lentz, Thomas, and Lowry, Glenn D., Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989.
• Lentz, Thomas, “Changing Worlds: Bihzad and the New Painting,” Persian Masters: Five Centuries of Painting, ed., Sheila R. Canby, Bombay, 1990, pp. 39–54.
• Milstein, Rachel, “Sufi Elements in Late Fifteenth Century Herat Painting”, Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet, ed., M. Rosen-Ayalon, Jerusalem, 1977, pp. 357-70.
• Rice, David Talbot, Islamic Art, 2nd ed., London, 1975.
• Rice, David Talbot, Islamic Painting: a Survey, Edinburgh, 1971.
• Robinson, Basil W., Fifteenth Century Persian Painting: Problems and Issues, New York, 1991.
• Roxburgh, David J., “Kamal al-Din Bihzad and Authorship in Persianate Painting,” Muqarnas, Vol. XVII, 2000, pp. 119-146.

See Also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kamal-ud-din Bihzad

• Persian miniature
• List of Persian painters
• (French) Behzad on the French Wikipedia