Manuscripts






Works in this room
Every one of the collection's manuscripts, in today's hang.
Section 1, north wall

Royal Reception in a Landscape, left folio from the double frontispiece of a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 940–1019 or 1025)Unrecorded Persian maker, 1444Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art 
"Preparing Medicine from Honey", from a Dispersed Manuscript of an Arabic Translation of De Materia Medica of Dioscorides'Abdullah ibn al-Fadl, dated 621 AH/1224 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Folio from a Mu'nis al-ahrar fi daqa'iq al-ash'ar (The Free Man's Companion to the Subtleties of Poems) of JajarmiMuhammad ibn Badr al-Din Jajarmi, dated 741 AH/1341 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Section 1, south wall

"Tahmuras Defeats the Divs", Folio 23v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah TahmaspAbu'l Qasim Firdausi, ca. 1525Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
"The Feast of Sada", Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah TahmaspAbu'l Qasim Firdausi, ca. 1525Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
"The Elephant Clock", Folio from a Book of the Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by al-JazariFarrukh ibn `Abd al-Latif, dated 715 AH/1315 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Section 2, south wall

"The Besotted Iranian Camp Attacked by Night", Folio 241r from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah TahmaspAbu'l Qasim Firdausi, ca. 1525–30Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Opening Folio of the 26th Volume of the "Anonymous Baghdad Qur'an"Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri, 706 AH/1306–7 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
"Isfandiyar's Third Course: He Slays a Dragon", Folio 434v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah TahmaspAbu'l Qasim Firdausi, ca. 1530Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Section 2, north wall

"Farhad Carves a Milk Channel for Shirin", Folio 74 from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of GanjaNizami, dated 931 AH/1524–25 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
"Laila and Majnun in School", Folio 129 from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of GanjaNizami, dated 931 AH/1524–25 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
"Shah Jahan on a Terrace, Holding a Pendant Set With His Portrait", Folio from the Shah Jahan AlbumChitarman, recto: dated 1627–28; verso: ca. 1530–50Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Section 3, north wall

"The Angel Gabriel meets 'Amr ibn Zaid (the Shepherd)", Folio from a Siyer-i Nebi (the Life of the Prophet)Mustafa ibn Vali, ca. 1595Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Jesus writes on the ground (folio 130 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome XavierUnrecorded Indian maker, 1602–4Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
Section 3, south wall

"Bahram Gur Sees a Herd of Deer Mesmerized by Dilaram' s Music", Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Amir Khusrau DihlaviAmir Khusrau Dihlavi, 1597–98Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Folio from a Mu'nis al-ahrar fi daqa'iq al-ash'ar (The Free Man's Companion to the Subtleties of Poems) of JajarmiMuhammad ibn Badr al-Din Jajarmi, dated 741 AH/1340–41 CECourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art