This Safavid drawing, Walters manuscript leaf W.682, depicts a kneeling young man with a falcon, a popular motif for paintings and drawings produced on single leaves. It dates to the late 10th century AH/AD 16th or early 11th century AH/AD 17th and was likely produced in Qazvin or Isfahan.For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts; folios (leaves), visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Safavid DynastyInscriptions: Reign: Style:
This leaf, Walters manuscript leaf W.682, is the back of a drawing of a youth with a falcon.For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts; folios (leaves), visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Safavid DynastyInscriptions: Reign: Style:
The binding is non-original.For the latest information about this object, bindings, visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Inscriptions: [Translation] Inscribed on one upper cover plaque in Armenian: The cross is a memorial of Nazlu Kha[t'un] and her son Gevork', and she gave this healing holy Gospels for the enjoyment of Ter Hohannes, in the year 1770.Reign: Style: Armenian
According to certain Muslim traditions, the prophet Muhammad would act as an intercessor, asking Allah (God) for entry into Paradise, on behalf of the believer. Various devotional works contain supplicating prayers and texts that honor the Prophet in poetic form. One example is Qasidat al-Burda (Poem of the Mantle), by Sharaf al-Din al-Busiri (born ca. 1212), who writes in this work:
By this eulogy have I served him,
Hoping to be redeemed from the sins of a
Life of odes and patronage.
–Qasidat al-Burda, line 140For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts; folios (leaves), visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Inscriptions: Reign: Style:
According to certain Muslim traditions, the prophet Muhammad would act as an intercessor, asking Allah (God) for entry into Paradise, on behalf of the believer. Various devotional works contain supplicating prayers and texts that honor the Prophet in poetic form. One example is Qasidat al-Burda (Poem of the Mantle), by Sharaf al-Din al-Busiri (born ca. 1212), who writes in this work:
By this eulogy have I served him,
Hoping to be redeemed from the sins of a
Life of odes and patronage.
–Qasidat al-Burda, line 140For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts; folios (leaves), visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Inscriptions: Reign: Style:
This miniature once formed part of a psalter where it faced the beginning of Psalm 77 (78), which in Byzantine usage opened the second half of the Psalms. It is a cutting from a volume on Mount Athos, Vatopedi Monastery MS 761. The latter manuscript can be dated precisely: the table on its fols. 3r-4v gives the dates of Easter for the years 6896-6919 (as calculated from the Creation of the world). The first of these corresponds to 1087-1088 CE and must be the year when the psalter was made.For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts, visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Inscriptions: Reign: Style: Byzantine
This Mughal drawing, Walters manuscript leaf W.697 is of a young man, identified by the inscription as Shahriyar, who was the youngest son of the 4th Mughal Emperor Jahangir (died 1037 AH/AD 1627). It dates to the 11th century AH/AD 17th. Shahriyar is shown in profile position, which is common in Mughal painting, especially in depictions of court ceremonies. The portrait is a preparatory drawing for a manuscript painting. It may have been at a later stage that the window frame and hand were drawn to suggest a jharoka scene. The buff-tinted and gold-sprinkled border is attributable to the12th century AH/AD 18th. The portrait is inscribed shabih-i Shariyar in red Nasta'liq script.For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts; folios (leaves), visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Mughal DynastyInscriptions: Reign: Style:
The Book of the Faiyum is the modern name of a text that describes the Faiyum oasis as the mythical center of prosperity and ritual. The text was compiled during the Greco-Roman period, perhaps in the temple of the crocodile god Sobek in Shedet (Greek: Crocodilopolis; Arabic: Medinet el-Faiyum), but it may be based on precedents from earlier periods. The most famous copy of this text, known as the Boulaq/Hood/Amherst papyrus, consists of two papyrus scrolls with hieroglyphic text and illustrations. Portions of this papyrus are now in the Walters Art Museum (Baltimore), the Morgan Library & Museum (New York), and the Egyptian Museum (Cairo). Besides this and other hieroglyphic versions, there are also hieratic and Demotic copies on papyrus and an unillustrated hieroglyphic version inscribed on the walls of the Sobek temple in Kom Ombo (Upper Egypt).
The focal point of the Walters Art Museum's section of the book of the Faiyum is a long oval representing the Faiyum lake itself. Inside the lake, images of mythological figures including the crocodile god Sobek-Re, Osiris, and the solar child allude to stories of the creation of the world as well as the nightly regeneration of the sun god. Around the lake, forty-two deities are depicted, each representing an important cult site in Egypt. In this way, the book functions as a map of a ceremonial landscape centered in the Faiyum.For the latest information about this object, manuscripts; papyri; scrolls; bookrolls, visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Ptolemaic DynastyInscriptions: Reign: Style:
This Safavid drawing, Walters manuscript leaf W.682, depicts a kneeling young man with a falcon. It dates to the late 10th century AH/AD 16th or early 11th century AH/AD 17th and was likely produced in Qazvin or Isfahan. Gilt and blue pigment are used to highlight the figure's clothing. Polychrome floral decoration in a decorative arch fills the upper portion of the composition.For the latest information about this object, illuminated manuscripts; folios (leaves), visit art.thewalters.org.Dynasty: Safavid DynastyInscriptions: Reign: Style:
