Three beautiful pages from the same manuscript, one of the cornerstones of Persian literature, the Khamsa (quintet) that the Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi composed in the second half of the 12th century.Persian text on paper on both sides, penned in black ink in nastaliq' calligraphy and arranged in four columns bordered by gilded fillet, titles in red. The three pages refer to three different poems:The illuminated folio with a man on horseback in a four-sided (chaharbagh) garden with a square fountain can be traced back to part 59 of Khosrow or Shirin (Cosroe and Shirin);The illustrated folio with an enthroned Shah in audience is a part from Haft Peykar (The Seven Beauties);The illuminated leaf with a man in dishevelled clothes knocking on a door depicts part 16 of Leyli or Majnun (Layla and Majnun).

Heavely restored

25 x 17 cm