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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 July 2022
The Shahnamah (RAS 239) copied for the Timurid prince, Muhammad Juki (1402–1445) in Herat, has long been considered one of the finest surviving, illustrated Timurid manuscripts. It was presented to the RAS in 1834 by Lieutenant Colonel Doyle (1787–1848), but attracted little scholarly attention until Barbara Brend published her monograph in 2010. The manuscript contains 31 exquisite miniature paintings, two of which (fol. 430v and fol. 531r) were added later during the Mughal period (1526–1761). This article will examine the sumptuous, jewel-like colours employed to depict scenes from the epic and the metals, pigments, and dyes from which they were derived. Precious metals and organic colours made from plants such as indigo and lac extracted from female insects are examined in detail: the methods of their production and extraction, the techniques used for their application, their commercial value, and the prestige they afforded their patrons all contribute to an understanding of what constituted the miniature painters' palette in the Timurid period.
1 Royal Asiatic Society, Persian Ms 239. The entire manuscript has been digitised at https://royalasiaticcollections.org/ras-persian-239-shahnamah-of-firdausi-of-muhammad-juki/, (accessed 27 April 2022). The digital version available at https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RAS-00239-00001/591 (accessed 27 April 2022) also offers a convenient platform that allows viewers to jump back and forth between individual images.
2 Brend, B., Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah of Firdausi (London, 2010), p. 1Google Scholar.
3 Ibid.
4 The flaking and powdering pigments were consolidated in 1993. Consolidation is the process of applying a dilute adhesive so as to adhere particles to each other and to the substrate. Closely monitoring the process through a microscope, the chosen adhesive—Selianski (purest grade) isinglass made from the swim-bladder of the sturgeon fish—was applied using a 000 brush.
5 All of the analysis of lac and indigo cited in this article was carried out in cooperation with Professor Maurizio Aceto, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria, Italy.
6 Brend distinguished the work of seven hands (Painters A–G): Brend, Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah, pp. 189–190.
7 For another recent identification of lac, see Beers, Kristine Rose, ‘Investigating the palette of the Ruzbihan Qur'an’, in Wright, E. J., Lapis and Gold: Exploring Chester Beatty's Ruzbihan Qur'an (London, 2018), pp. 246–263Google Scholar.
8 For a full account of species from India and Southeast Asia, see Donkin, R. A., ‘The insect dyes of Western and West-Central Asia’, Anthropos 72 (1977), pp. 864–865Google Scholar; Mohanasunderam, A., Monobrullah, M., Sharma, K. K., Meena, S. C. and Ramani, R., Lac Insect and Associated Fauna (Ranchi, 2016)Google Scholar.
9 Mahdihassan, S., ‘Lac as a drug in the Athara-Veda and its identity’, Hamdard Medius 23 (1980), pp. 106–132Google Scholar.
10 Roy, M., ‘Dyes in ancient and medieval India’, Indian Journal of the History of Sciences 13 (1978), pp. 83–112Google Scholar.
11 It has recently been identified on a third-century bce Hellenistic wine jug from Puglia in Italy: see Dyer, J., ‘The identification of lac as a pigment in ancient Greek polychromy: the case of a Hellenistic oinochoe from Canosa di Puglia’, Dyes and Pigments 149 (2018), pp. 122–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Cardon, D., Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science (London, 2007), pp. 664–665Google Scholar.
13 Cardon, D., Le Monde des Tinctures Naturelles (Paris, 2003), p. 515Google Scholar.
14 Casson, L., The Periplus Maris Erythraei (Princeton, 1989)Google Scholar, Introduction, p. 18; translation, p. 55.
15 Goitein, S. D., Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton, NJ, 1973)Google Scholar; S. Moosvi, ‘India's sea trade with Iran in medieval times’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 70 (2009–10), pp. 240–251.
16 Cardon, Natural Dyes Sources, p. 664.
17 Leix, A., ‘Medieval dye markets in Europe’, CIBA Review 10 (1938), pp. 324–329Google Scholar. From the thirteenth century onwards, lac was imported to Europe, where it was widely used for textile dyeing, painting, and polychromy, as well as for manuscript painting and for colouring tawed skin book covers. By the fourteenth century the Venetians and Genovese, the main traders for all European destinations, purchased it in Constantinople, the principal trading base of the time.
18 For example, in his Kitab al-Nabat the great Persian polymath Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari (d. 896) described using lac to dye leathers and skins: see Pfister, R., ‘Matériaux pour servir au classement des textiles égyptiens postérieurs à la conquête arabe’, Revue des Arts Asiatiques 10.2 (1936), p. 6Google Scholar.
19 M. Levey, ‘Mediaeval Arabic bookmaking and its relation to early chemistry and pharmacology’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n. s. 52.4 (1962), pp. 19–20.
20 W. M. Thackston, ‘Treatise on calligraphic arts: a disquisition on paper, colors, inks and pens by Simi of Nishapur’, in Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson, Professor of Persian Studies, Princeton University, (eds) M. M. Mazzaoui and V. Moreen (Salt Lake City, 1990), p. 220.
21 Porter, Y., Painters, Paintings and Books: An Essay on Indo-Persian Technical Literature, 12–19th Centuries (New Delhi, 1994), p. 48Google Scholar.
22 I owe this information to the team of Maria João Melo, Department of Conservation and Restoration Requimte, Faculty of Science and Technology, Campus Caparica, Monte de Caparica, Portugal.
23 C. Porter, ‘Color analysis and the roles of economics, geography and tradition in the artist's choice of colors for manuscript painting’, in And Diverse Are Their Hues: Color in Islamic Art and Culture, (eds) J. Bloom and S. Blair (New Haven and London, 2011), p. 220.
24 In January and February 2019, I travelled to Ranchi, Jharkhand, India, to study the cultivation and processing of lac, as well as how it was brought to market. I am grateful to Dr R. Ramani, ex-director of the ICAR-Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (INRG), as well as the scientific team at the Institute. My thanks also to Miho Kitagawa of the Lac Study Group in Japan, and to Mr Singh, Nidhi Agarwal, and Penny Jewel, who made possible my visits to the tribal areas.
25 Porter, Painters, Paintings and Books, pp. 41–42 and 64.
26 Balfour-Paul, J., Indigo in the Arab World (Richmond, 1997), p. 23Google Scholar.
27 Ibid., p. 24.
28 Various substances are traditionally added to adjust the pH of the vat and to promote fermentation. In India, these may include a fructose source, such as dates or tamarind, as well as lime, lumps of chalk, and soda ash, among other substances.
29 Brend, Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah, p. 8.
30 Two miniatures were added to the manuscript in Mughal India: ‘Talhand dies during the battle against his brother’ (fol. 430v) and ‘Yazdagird hides in a mill’ (fol. 531r); see Brend, Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah, pp. 148–162 for a discussion of the manuscript's sojourn in India.
31 Balfour-Paul, Indigo, p. 167 and note 102 citing Abu Tayyib Muhammad al-Washshaʾ, Kitab al-Muwashshaʾ, (ed.) R. E. Brunnow (Leiden, 1886), pp. 126–127.
32 L. Golombek, ‘The draped universe of Islam’, in Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic World, (ed.) P. P. Soucek (University Park and London, 1988), p. 29 and note 26, citing Sharaf al-Din Yazdi, Zafarnamah (Tehran, 1957–58), Vol. 1, p. 199; Balfour-Paul, Indigo, p. 167 and note 103.
33 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 63.210.35; available at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451730?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=mantiq+al-tayr&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=5 (accessed 27 April 2022).
34 J. Scott Meisami, ‘I guess that's why they call it the blues: depictions of Majnun in illustrated manuscripts’, in And Diverse Are Their Hues, (eds) Bloom and Blair, pp. 120–151.
35 Caley, E. R., ‘The Leyden Papyrus X: an English translation with brief notes’, Journal of Chemical Education 3.10 (1926), p. 1157CrossRefGoogle Scholar, §54: ‘Preparation of liquid gold. Soft leaves of gold: pulverise with mercury in a mortar; and employ them in writing, after the manner of black ink’, 71.
36 Thompson, D., The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting (New York, 1956), p. 194Google Scholar.
37 Allan, J. W., Persian Metal Technology, 700–1300 (London, 1979), p. 7Google Scholar.
38 J. B. Martin, ‘Islamic gilding technology: written sources and scientific analyses’, in Art Technology, Sources and Methods, (ed.) S. Kroustallis (London, 2008), pp. 119–126.
39 This technique is still used, with gum in Turkey and with honey in India. For a useful explanation of this technique, see Anita Chowdry on preparing ‘shell gold’: https://anitachowdry.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/preparing-shell-gold/ (accessed 27 April 2022).
40 Wright, Lapis and Gold, p. 242.
41 For the Mughal Qurʾan manuscript, see Arberry, A. J., The Koran Illuminated (Dublin, 1967), no. 163Google Scholar, p. 50.
42 Wright, E., The Look of the Book: Manuscript Production in Shiraz, 1303–1452 (Washington DC, 2012), p. 58Google Scholar.
43 N. Morgan, ‘Painting with gold and silver’, in Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, (ed.) S. Panayotova (London, 2016.)
44 Arberry, The Koran Illuminated, p. 50.
45 Indian manuscripts almost always use tin, especially to depict water, and much else besides. For further discussion, see Porter, C., ‘The use of metals in Islamic manuscripts’, in The Making of Islamic Art. Studies in Honour of Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, (ed.) Hillenbrand, R. (Edinburgh, 2021) pp. 160–179Google Scholar.