'Chad Kia convincingly demonstrates the poetic richness and cultural depth of the late fifteenth-century paintings produced in the spiritually imbued intellectual and artistic atmosphere of the Herat elite. Written in rich language and with intellectual sharpness, this book is a pleasure to read.'
Rachel Milstein, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Transforming our understanding of Persian art, this impressive interdisciplinary book decodes some of the world's most exquisite medieval paintings. It reveals the hidden meaning behind enigmatic figures and scenes that have puzzled modern scholars, focusing on five 'miniature' paintings. Chad Kia shows how the cryptic elements in these works of art from Timurid Persia conveyed the mystical teachings of Sufi poets like Rumi, Attar and Jami, and heralded one of the most significant events in the history of Islam: the takeover by the Safavids in 1501 and the conversion of Iran to Shiism.
Key Features
. Interprets celebrated but enigmatic paintings from collections in the Metropolitan Museum, the British Library and the Freer Gallery
. Brings poetry and art together in a transformative reading of Persian illustrated manuscripts
. Bridges art history, literature and religion to reconsider Shia and Safavid cultural and intellectual history
. Connects Persian figural painting to the rise of the Safavids and Shiism in Iran
CHAD KIA has been a Smithsonian Fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art in Washington DC, and has taught Persian and Arabic literatures and Islamic art and intellectual history at Harvard University and Brown University.
Cover image: 'Majnun on Layla's Tomb' from Khamsa of Nizami, 1494 © The British Library Board, Or. 6810, f.144v
Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com
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ISBN 978-1-4744-5038-6

Chad Kia has been a Smithsonian Fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art in Washington DC, and has taught Persian and Arabic literatures and Islamic art and intellectual history at Harvard University and Brown University.

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Coming to Terms with Meaning in Persian Painting; 1. Poetics of the Picture: Verbal Imagery and Visual Language ; 2. Remaking Persian Painting: Didactic Sufism in a Timurid Manuscript; 3. The Third Station on the Path to Sufism: The Bearded Man Drowning; 4. Fixed-Figure Prototypes and the Symbolic Order; 5. The Culmination of a Trend: "Depraved Man Commits Bestiality"; Conclusion: The Sufi Synthesis; Notes; Illustrations; Bibliography.