Manuscript of the <i>Baharistan</i> (Spring Garden)

This manuscript, a complete version of the Baharistan, or Spring Garden, by the Persian poet Jami (1419–1492), demonstrates the significance of the book arts in Islamic cultures. Born of Islam’s reverence for the written word, and refined and disseminated by royal patronage, books like this one were the products of a painstaking process—from procuring paper and the leather binding to sourcing fine pigments and senior artists to create the lavish illuminations. Jami’s poem deals with the virtues of moral leadership, which would have been of great appeal to Sultan ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, khan of Bukhara, who commissioned this book and double-page illustration, which features Alexander the Great—a historical figure popular in princely Persian poetry.