PMA and SOAS University of London: Artistic Innovation at the Library of Prince Baysunghur
Artistic Innovation at the Library of Prince Baysunghur
Artistic Innovation at the Library of Prince Baysunghur, Dr Shiva Mihan, SOAS University of London, 8 May 2025
Dr Shiva Mihan
Convenor: Professor Anna Contadini
ReSIA
(Research Seminar in Islamic Art)
Thursday 8 May 2025, 18:00h
Khalili Lecture Theatre – SOAS, University of London
Timurid prince Baysunghur (1397–1433) established his royal library and atelier (kitabkhana) in Herat circa 1420. In the brief but prolific period before his untimely death, the library produced over thirty manuscripts and advanced the arts of the book. Under his patronage, significant advancements were made in calligraphy, illumination, textual editing, mise-en-page, and album making (muraqqaʿ).
This paper introduces the structure and ambitions of Baysunghur’s kitabkhana, offering a reassessment of the oft-cited project report, the Arzadasht, and drawing on extant manuscripts and primary sources. Special attention is given to the Jung-i Marathi (Book of Elegies), a hitherto overlooked source that sheds light on the intellectual and aesthetic ambitions of the Baysunghur’s atelier.
Dr Shiva Mihan is Curator of Islamic Collections (Persianate World) at the British Museum. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2018, where her dissertation Timurid Manuscript Production: The Scholarship and Aesthetics of Prince Baysunghur’s Royal Library (1420–1435) was awarded the Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies in 2019. She has held curatorial and academic positions at leading institutions, including a postdoctoral fellowship as Curator of Islamic Art at the Harvard Art Museums (2018–2020) and a subsequent fellowship in Islamic Art at the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She has also taught Islamic art as a visiting professor at Washington University in St Louis. Mihan’s research centres on the history of Islamic manuscript production, artistic patronage, and the transmission of texts in the Persianate world. She is currently also the founder and President of the Persian Manuscripts Association. Her forthcoming monograph, Patronage and Manuscript Production in Timurid Herat, offers a new reading of manuscript culture under Prince Baysunghur. Bridging art history and intellectual history, the book explores the material and textual richness of manuscripts produced in Herat during the early 15th century, underscoring the often-overlooked significance of their literary content.
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https://tinyurl.com/2cy5rh5z
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