Illuminated Folio from a Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa'di (c. 1213–1291) (c. 1475–1500; border: c. 1550): Art, History and Details

Illuminated Folio from a Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa'di (c. 1213–1291) (c. 1475–1500; border: c. 1550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Sultan Muhammad (Iranian); Sultan 'Ali al-Mashadi (Iranian, 1430–1520).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In the border surrounding the Persian poetical text, deer and a lion coexist peacefully in a forest. This imagery may reference the rule of a righteous king. The text is from the Gulistan, one of the most celebrated works of Persian literature, completed around 1258. Gulistan means “Rose Garden” in Persian; just as a rose garden is a collection of flowers, the contents are a collection of anecdotes. This page is from the section “On the Conduct of Kings.”

Object facts

• Title: Illuminated Folio from a Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa'di (c. 1213–1291)
• Date: c. 1475–1500; border: c. 1550
• Creator attribution: Sultan Muhammad (Iranian); Sultan 'Ali al-Mashadi (Iranian, 1430–1520)
• Culture: Iran, Tabriz, Safavid period (1501-1722)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, gold, and silver on paper
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 2006.148

A detail from the museum

Written in both prose and verse, the Gulistan was used for centuries as a primer for schoolchildren in greater Iran, India, and Turkey.

Collection credit

Gift of William Kelly Simpson in memory of his wife Marilyn M. Simpson and her grandparents Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Canby, Sheila R. The Golden Age of Persian Art: 1501-1722. London: British Museum, 2008.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.