This book is the first survey of the figural arts of the Iranian world from prehistoric times to the early twentieth century ever to consider themes, rather than styles. Analyzing primarily painting - in manuscripts and albums, on walls and on lacquered, painted pen boxes and caskets - but also the related arts of sculpture, ceramics, and metalwork, the author finds that the underlying themes depicted on them through the ages are remarkably consistent. Eleanor Sims demonstrates that all these arts display similar concerns: kingship and legitimacy; the righteous exercise of princely power and the defense of national territory; and the performance of rituals and the religious duties called for by the paramount cult of the day. She describes a variety of superb works of art inside and outside these categories, noting not only how they illustrate archetypal themes but also what it is about them that is unique. She also discusses the ways that Iranian art both influenced and was influenced by invaders and neighboring lands. Boris I. Marshak discusses pre-Islamic and also Central Asian art, in particular the earliest Iranian wall paintings and their pictorial parallels in rock carvings and metalwork, and the richly painted temples and houses of Panjikent. Ernst J. Grube considers religious imagery, and provides an informative bibliography.

Peerless Images: Persian Painting and Its Sources

Arts & Photography

Sims, Eleanor

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

Offers a survey of Islamic architecture through essays that discuss how different structures reflect the culture, and profiles with maps, photographs, details, and descriptions of noteworthy buildings.

Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History and Social Meaning

Grabar, Oleg

GRUBE, Ernst J.

Dickie, James

Lewcock, Ronald

Jones, Dalu

Petherbridge, Gut T.

Reference

Thames&Hudson

A large part of this volume is devoted to 14th to 19th century Shahnamah paintings in the Khalili Collection. Included are a folio from the Great Mongol Shahnamah, 10 folios from the celebrated manuscript painted by Shah Tahmasp, 3 folios from the Shahnamah of Shah Isma'il, and two complete Safavid copies which were once in the Mugfhal royal library. Another section of the volume is devoted to illustrations of works of history, including two folios from Ibrahim Sultan's Zafarnamah, and two from a dispersed copy of the history of Shah Isma'il Safavi. (Khalili Collections 2009)

The Tale and the Image: Part One, Firdawsi's Shahnamah and Historical Manuscripts (NKD COLLECTION OF ISLAMIC ART)

Literature & Fiction

The Shahnama (Book of Kings), which chronicles the history of Iran from the Creation to the Islamic conquest, was written by the poet Firdawsi at the turn of the eleventh century. Its central importance to Iranian culture is reflected in the thousands of copies made since then, many superbly illustrated and produced for royal and other powerful patrons. One of these copies, presented to Queen Victoria in 1839, is one of the finest treasures among the collection of Islamic manuscripts now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Its 148 colorful images show heroes, mythical beasts, and bloody combats and are complemented by particularly sumptuous marginal illumination in gold. B. W. Robinson relates the history of the Shahnama’s composition, and describes the Windsor manuscript and the circumstances under which it came to Britain. He also provides a lively summary of the narrative to accompany black-and-white illustrations of every painting. Over 50 of these are also shown in full-color plates. Eleanor Sims discusses in detail the likely attribution of the paintings in the Windsor volume, and compares other seventeenth-century Shahnama manuscripts; she also examines the wider cultural milieu reflected in the paintings.

The Windsor Shahnama of 1648

Robinson, B. W.

Paul Holberton Publishing

Born in 1924 in the ancient Persian city of Qazvin, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian spent her childhood in a grand old house replete with stained glass, wall paintings and nightingales. Coming of age during World War II, she left occupied Iran and audaciously set out for New York, where she was quickly absorbed into the city's thriving avant garde. In the decades to follow, during successive exiles in Tehran and New York, Farmanfarmaian developed an intuitive yet painstakingly crafted artistic practice in mirror mosaic and reverse-painted glass that weds the cosmic patterning of her Iranian heritage with the rhythms of modern Western geometric abstraction. This book is the first substantial survey of Farmanfarmaian's acclaimed geometric works, and features an in-depth interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist; critical essays by Nader Ardalan, Media Farzin and Eleanor Sims; warm tributes by Farmanfarmaian's friends Etel Adnan, Siah Armajani, caraballo-farman, Golnaz Fathi, Hadi Hazavei, Susan Hefuna, Aziz Isham, Rose Issa, Faryar Javaherian, Abbas Kiarostami, Shirin Neshat, Donna Stein and Frank Stella; an excerpt from The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture by Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar (1973); and an annotated timeline of Farmanfarmaian's life by Negar Azimi. "A role model for the artist of the twenty-first century." -Hans Ulrich Obrist

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Cosmic Geometry

Ardalan, Nader

Farzin, Media

Damiani/Third Line

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Books by Sims, Eleanor