A Calligraphic Composition by Ismaʿil Jalayir
in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Maryam Ekhtiar
Synopsis:
This presentation focuses on a calligraphic composition with tiny vignettes made by the 19th-century Iranian painter Isma‘il Jalayir, now held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It attempts to unpack this mesmerizing painting, analyze its many minute details, and shed light on its encoded meanings and significance within the historical and artistic context of the Qajar period (1785–1925). Through a step-by-step examination of the depictions of architecture, animals, scenes of hunting, entertainment, and everyday life, it is argued that this composition offers a utopian vision equating Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (1848–1896) to King Solomon, the just ruler and prophet who had the extraordinary gift of conversing with animals and birds.
References:
Azhand, Yaʿqoob. “Ismaʿil Jalayir.” Golestan-i Honar Nashr-i Paykareh, Tehran, no. 3 (2013). 
Blair, Sheila. Islamic Calligraphy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.
Diba, Layla, S. with Ekhtiar, Maryam eds. Royal Persian Painting: The Qajar Epoch 1779-1924. London: I. B. Tauris in association with The Brooklyn Museum, 1998.
Fellinger, Gwenaëlle, ed. L’Empire des Roses: Chefs-d’oeuvre de L’Art Persan du XIXe siècle [exposition, Musée du Louvre-Lens, 28 mars-23 juillet 2018]. Ghent: Snoeck; Louvre-Lens, 2018.
Fellinger, Gwenaëlle, and Melanie Gibson, eds. Revealing the Unseen: New Perspectives on Qajar Art. London: Ginko, 2021.
Koch, Ebba. “The Mughal Emperor as Solomon, Majnun, and Orpheus or the Album as a Think Tank for Allegory.” Muqarnas 27 (2010): 277–311.
Raby, Julian, ed. Qajar Portraits: Figure Paintings from Nineteenth Century Persia. London: Azimuth, 1999.
Roxburgh, David J., and Mary McWilliams, eds. Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Art Museums, 2017.
Worksheet:
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Citation:
Maryam Ekhtiar, “A Calligraphic Composition by Ismaʿil Jalayir in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 22 September 2022.
Maryam Ekhtiar is Patti Cadby Birch Curator in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is a specialist in nineteenth-century Persian art and culture, calligraphy, and later Persian painting. She co-edited the exhibition catalogue Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925 (1998), Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011), and Art of the Islamic World: A Resource for Educators (2012). Her latest book, How to Read the Art of Islamic Calligraphy, was published in 2018, and her article “Ahl al-Bayt Imagery Revisited: A Drawing by Isma‘il Jalayir at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” is included in the volume Revealing the Unseen: New Perspectives on Qajar Art (2021).