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Read Ebook: The Arts of Persia & Other Countries of Islam by Kevorkian Hagop K
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Ebook has 81 lines and 8189 words, and 2 pages
"In the name of God compassionate and merciful this YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA treasured on the occasion of BLESSED ACCESSION."
In confirmation of the foregoing, it is of great interest that JAHANGIR makes special reference in his memoirs to an incident, as of highest importance, that he was presented by ABD-AL-RAHIM KHAN, KHAN-I-KHANAN, with a superb copy of J'AMI'S poem YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA, transcribed by MIR ALI SULTANI, "Prince of Penmen", and that the gift was appraised at "a thousand Muhr".
ZALIKHA in old age, broken and in poverty, meets YUSUF in the market place in Egypt.
--Quotation from YUSUF-OU-ZALIKHA . Translation of R.T. GRIFFITH.
"There is no God but GOD," said the APOSTLE OF ARABIA, but the poet reflected awhile, and his rejoinder was: "The Ways of God are as the number of SOULS OF MEN."
The Prophet's religion was rational, its principles attainable; it secured for the poet social amelioration and physical comfort, but there was a voice from the depth of his soul that he could not silence. It was the voice of mystery; he was concerned with the problems of the "Wherefore, the Whence, and the Whither".... Was he not a Son of the land which PLOTINUS visited to learn mystery of the Orient of Old?
We have to look therefore to the RELIGION, "The Ways" of whose God "are as the number of Souls of Men", to perceive the true nature of the evolution of the artistic expression of these people.
Souls with irresistible cravings for Mysticism, poets, artists, philosophers and the like, discovered for the first time from MUHAMMAD'S formal teachings, which contained certain esoteric elements, that the senses, unreal and phenomenal, have yet an important mission to fulfill in the task which aims to escape from SELF and to attain the height where the eternal beauty,
"PORTRAIT OF MEHDI ALI GULI KHAN, COMMANDER OF FORTRESS, BY RAMDAS"--A.D. 1630.
A leaf from the National Portrait Album conceived by the Emperor AKBAR, and amplified and executed by JAHANGIR and SHAH JAHAN. The volume consists of portraits of the Royal Family of the GREAT MOGULS and their principal supporters. These historic personages are represented in the centre as single individuals, with their chief officials and retainers in the border around them.
RAMDAS, a Hindu artist, was one of AKBAR'S artists who worked under JAHANGIR and SHAH JAHAN. His signed works include the following:
BABURNAMA in the British Museum and South Kensington Museum. AKBARNAMA in South Kensington Museum. RAZMNAMA in the State Library, Jaipur, India. TIMURNAMA in the Oriental Public Library, Bankipur, India.
"Oct. 18th, 1666.--To Court. It being ye first time his Ma'ty put himself solemnly into Eastern fashion of vest, changeing doublet, stiff collar, bands and cloake, into a comley dress, after ye Persian mode. I had sometime before presented an invective against our so much affecting the French fashion, to his Majesty, in which I took occasion to describe the comelinesse and usefulness of the Persian clothing, in ye very same manner his Ma'ty now clad himself."--JOHN EVELYN , celebrated historian and diarist.
which is but ONE, reveals itself through countless phenomena which are but reflections of ONE. "The PHANTASMAL is the BRIDGE to the REAL," says the mystic, and the immortal lines of J'AMI read:
The unreality of things material, the illusion of Self and desires, the perception that all living things and apparent phenomena reflected but one all-embracing GOOD and BEAUTY, was the philosophy of Hindu and all Oriental mystics of old; but they attempted to destroy the self and desires uncompromisingly and unreasonably. It was a philosophy "cold" and "bloodless", as Professor BROWNE points out, in trenchant terms. The MUHAMMADAN mystic became conscious that the stream cannot be crossed without the aid of the BRIDGE constructed for this purpose.
Here lies the KEYNOTE, the mainspring of inspiration of artistic expression, which might be termed MUHAMMADAN ART: A merging of physical and spiritual, of worldly magnificence and eternal bliss.
THE PRINCES OF THE HOUSE OF TIMUR
EMIR TIMUR on the throne
On the right of the throne:
BABUR A.D. 1526-1530 HUMAYUN A.D. 1530-1556 AKBAR A.D. 1556-1605 JAHANGIR A.D. 1605-1627 SHAH JAHAN A.D. 1627-1658
On the left are three sons of SHAH JAHAN:
DARA SHIKOH SHAH SHUJA AURENGZIB
MUGHAL Painting from the Imperial Library of DELHI, A.D. 1640
TALAR RUG
From the looms of ISPAHAN or the adjoining city of JOSHAGAN. Made during the reign of SHAH SULEIMAN , upon the model of CHAHAR BAGH Royal Garden at ISPAHAN, on the grounds of which the Royal Pavilion of HASHT BAHISHT stands. The Rug measures 29 feet by 9 feet 5 inches.
LORD CURZON in his History of Persia, Vol. II, page 38, gives the following description of the Garden of CHAHAR BAGH:
"At the upper extremity a two storeyed PAVILION connected by a corridor with the SERAGLIO of the palace, so as to enable the ladies of the harem to gaze unobserved upon the merry scene below, looked out upon the centre of the avenue. Water conducted in stone channels ran down the centre, falling in cascades from terrace to terrace, and was occasionally collected in great square or octagonal basins where cross roads cut the avenues. On either side of the central channel was a row of chenars and a paved pathway for pedestrians, then occurred a succession of open parterres, usually planted or sown. Next on either side was a second row of chenars, between which and flanking walls was a raised causeway for horsemen. At intervals corresponding with the successive terraces and basins, arched doorways with recessed open chambers overhead conducted through these walls into the various royal or noble gardens that stretched on either side and were known as the gardens of the throne; nightingale, vines, mulberries, Dervishes, etc. Some of these pavilions were places of public resort and were used as coffee houses, where when the business of the day was over the good burghers of Ispahan assembled to sip that beverage and inhale their Kalians the while. At the bottom quays lined the banks of the river and were bordered with the mansions of the nobility."
A desire to reach to our higher instincts through the vehicle of our senses is apparent in all forms in which these masters sought to express themselves; we feel that, in their entrancing rhythmical compositions, in their incomparable poetry of flowing melodious words, in all their literature, in the inimitable colors and lyrical lines of all branches of representation of visual art. We feel the presence of an element prevailing throughout, and underlying every form of expression, an element which may be described in a word, "HUMAN".
It is stated that the PERSIAN spirit and feeling were reflected in all forms of artistic expression of the MUHAMMADAN world. It is not, however, intended that other nations and countries over which ISLAM held sway, contributed nothing in the building of the influences of each were felt in varying degrees in the transmigration of ideas continued to take place between the nations, and the influences of each were felt in varying degrees in the transformation that resulted. In the fusion referred to, the influence of the PERSIAN culture was predominant, a fact so transparent, as to require no emphasis.
It is not intended to deal here with particular aspects or divers branches of arts in which the genius of these artists found expression. In offering briefly these lines as to the general aspect of the Art of the MUHAMMADAN world, the intention is to offer an explanation to those who may not be familiar with its history.
H. KEVORKIAN
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