^#smrgSAHAF The Topkapi Saray Museum: The Albums and Illustrated Manuscripts - 1986

Among the many splendours of the Topkapi Saray Museum is its wonderfully rich collection of illustrated manuscripts, the subject of this fully illustrated work.

This volume (one of five dealing with different aspects of the collections) is concerned with a selection of outstanding Islamic miniatures in illustrated copies of classic works, as well as surviving fragments pasted or bound into albums. The works discussed and illustrated include important manuscript copies of such scientific works as Dioscorides' Materia Medica (translated into Arabic) and al-Süfi's Book of the Fixed Stars; romances such as the tales of "Varqa and Gulshâh" and of "Jamâl and Jalâl"; the fables of "Kalila and Dimna"; the Khanysa of Nizâmi; the Iranian national epic -the Shahname of Firdawsi- eulogizing the deeds of past rulers; and later Ottoman works, such as the Süleymanname and the Selimname, in praise of the exploits of individual Sultans. Paintings from lost or dispersed manuscripts, now bound into albums, include specimens from the fourteenth-century World History -the Jami al-Tawarikh- by Rashid al-Din, as well as important scroll-fragments and other items of Chinese inspiration.

The "Topkapi Saray Library" can boast a priceless collection of works -scientific, secular and religious- from different dynasties and regions within the Islamic world, including: Baghdad and Mosul in Mesopotamia (thirteenth century); il-Khânid Tabriz and Muzaffarid Shiraz (fourteenth century); Akkoyunlu Shiraz and Tabriz, Timurid Herat, and Safavid Shiraz and Tabriz (fifteenth century); and Ottoman work executed in Istanbul by painters and calligraphers of the Palace studio. Representative examples, reflecting the enlightened patronage of individual Sultans over four centuries, are illustrated and described, and the history of the "Topkapi Saray Library" and early Islamic practices in the fields of calligraphy and book illustration is fully discussed in the text.