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  • Page Numbers Added by Album Editor or Collector

    Page Numbers Added by Album Editor or Collector

  • Tash‘ir

    Tash‘ir

    A type of painting in the margins of a book manuscript or a single-page piece of calligraphy that entails more or less realistic images of animals.  It is normally done in only one color (usually gold).  Here the white arrows point to the influence of Chinese landscape paintings on the tash‘ir of this work.

  • Dandān Mushi

    Dandān Mushi

    Literally, "mousy (or mouse-like) teeth." It refers to the cloud-like demarcations used around words in illuminated manuscripts.
  • Miniature Painting

    Miniature Painting

  • Gereft-o-gir

    Gereft-o-gir

    Literally “captured and pinned,” it refers to one of the decorative motifs used in tash‘ir.  Here it refers to the depictions of animals in the topmost and bottom sections of the page.

  • Lachaki

    Lachaki

    Triangular decorations drawn on the top and bottom, and sometimes sides, of a chalipā.

  • Jadval

    Jadval

    Jadval or “border” refers to the thin lines that surround the four sides of the text and separate it from the margins.  These lines come in different colors and are drawn by metal instruments known as qalam-e jadval (pens used for drawing borders).  Today, a European version of these pens, known as Terling, is used.  The thickness of the lines could be adjusted by turning a screw on the handle of the qalam-e jadval.

  • Sar-Toranj

    Sar-Toranj

    Decorations similar to toranj, but much smaller, which appear at the two ends of the principle toranj. 

  • Toranj

    Toranj

    Toranj is a common decoration found in tazhib.  It can be circular or oval.  When only half of the circle or oval is drawn, it is called a “half toranj” or nim-toranj.  Sometimes smaller toranjs, called sar-toranj are drawn atop of the toranj.

  • Band-e rumi

    Band-e rumi

  • Raqam

    Raqam

    The tradition of signing or writing one’s name at the end of a manuscript or a piece of calligraphy is very ancient and dates back to the first centuries of Islam.  It is more common to find the name of calligraphers than other artists or craftsmen at the end of manuscripts since they were the ones who did the writing.  There are certain phrases that have come to be customarily included in signatures or raqams; they usually point to the humility of the artists:  al-ḥaqīr (the humble), al-faqīr (the impoverished), etc.

  • Eslimi

    Eslimi

    Decorative vine motif
  • Sin in Nasta‘liq

    Sin in Nasta‘liq

    In the Nasta‘liq script, in order to avoid confusion between the letters sin (س) and shin (ش), three dots are written under sin (س).  Furthermore, when the sin (س) is written without the teeth, the writing of three dots under the sin (س) helps with legibility.  For example, it helps distinguish between the word جم, which means “multitude,” and جسم, which means “body.”

  • Two Dots under Ye

    Two Dots under Ye

    Sometimes, in order to achieve aesthetic equilibrium in the representation of a word or in order to fill in space, two dots are written under the letter ی, or an alef maqsorah  ( ٰ ) is written above the letter ی.  While these two dots and the alef maqsorah are significant in modern Arabic orthography, they do not carry any particular significance in Persian.

  • Sharing or Omitting Dots

    Sharing or Omitting Dots

    The curves or the extended forms of letters in the Nasta‘liq script, when combined with the limited space given to texts in illuminated manuscripts, do not leave enough room for writing all the dots of letters.  Consequently, calligraphers sometimes omit dots or use one dot for two letters.  Here, the white arrow points to where dots have been omitted and the red arrow points to where two letters share the same dots.

A folio from the Golshan Album, 1534 CE. Library of the Golestān Palace.

Text and Margins

The relationship between the text and margin is noteworthy when the paper used for the text and the paper used for the margin are different.

Margins are generally distinguished from the text with thin lines, called borders or jadval.  Depending on the fineness of the manuscript or book, it could have multiple margins of varying colors.  In fine manuscripts and albums, the paper for the text and the margin are usually of a differing type and color.  Sometimes, the text of a book would be written on two pieces of thin paper that were glued together so that there would not be a shadow from the text on the other side of the page.  For this reason, the paper used for the margin of the page would often be twice as thick as the paper used for the text.  When a single page was used to write on both sides, attention would be paid to choosing a paper with similar thickness with the text in order to avoid wrinkles.  

This is usually done when the margin is damaged.  A type of paper would be selected for the margin similar in color and thickness to the paper used for the text.  This way, the book would close flat, and there would not be wrinkles that would allow air to sieve through the pages.

This method of attaching a new margin would have been done with utmost care so that the paper of the text and of the margin were edge to edge and did not overlap.  Usually, the touching edges of the papers were then hidden from view with colored borders.  Because of the considerable degree of expertise and effort required to create these kinds of pages, this technique is found only in the finest of manuscripts or albums.

In this piece, it appears that the thin blue border was drawn later than the thicker gold margins since, at certain places, it overlaps the decorative illumination on the page.  The addition of the blue border has the effect of distracting the viewer’s eye from the seam between the text and margin.

Chalipā

This is a form of writing in which the lettering is not horizontal but written at a 45 degree angle.  It is usually used for writing a couplet or a few verses of poetry in the Nasta‘liq script.

Symmetry

Symmetry is a common aspect of Islamicate arts, but at times slight varieties are embedded in seemingly symmetrical pieces, either for the sake of variety itself or because differing sizes of letters and words, which are out of the control of the artist, would disrupt the symmetry of the page.  As such, despite their symmetrical appearance, there is rarely perfect symmetry in these works.

Tazhib

The art of illuminating manuscripts or the borders of calligraphic works is called tazhib.  It is derived from the Arabic word for gold, dhahab, and it usually requires using gold.  Tazhib, however, is not exclusively in gold.  Other colors such as white, red, azure, etc. are also used.  Tazhib drawings, which have a long history, are not naturalistic drawings; rather they are based on the imagination of the artist and are thus regarded as a distinct form of drawing.

Tazhib can be understood as a specific kind of gilding, but there are two ways in which gold was employed in the traditional art of bookmaking in Iran.  In one, gold papers, which were extremely thin and brittle were used to cover all or part of the surface of a page. In the other, gold was used in liquid solutions for drawing or for writing, as in the case of tazhib.  The following is the traditional method used for making gold solutions.  A small piece of gold was placed between two pieces of leather, and hammered for a long time until a very thin layer of gold was produced.  Then, the thin layer of gold was ground in a container with gum arabic or another type of adhesive material that produced a gold solution, which was then used as ink for writing, drawing, or creating borders.