The Khamsa, or quintet, of Nizami, completed in 1202, consists of five long narrative poems: the Makhzan-ol-Asrar; Khusraw wa Shirin; Layla wa Majnun; Iskandarnama; and Haft Peykar. The work was a popular subject for manuscript production and illumination.
This group of folios, though commercial in style, have densely filled scenes full of figures, architecture and lively plants, which B.W. Robinson comments are typical features of the transition from late Turkman to early Safavid painting (Adel Adamova & Manijeh Bayani, Persian Painting: The Arts of the Book and Portraiture, the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, London, 2015, p.335). For a similar copy of the Khamsa dated 1513, see op.cit., cat.22, pp.335-65. A group of folios from a Khamsa from Shiraz circa 1510 was sold in these Rooms, 21 April 2016, lot 96.
This group comprises:
1. Bahram Gur in the Red Pavilion with the Slavic Princess, from the Haft Peykar
2. Bahram Gur in the Sandalwood pavilion with the Princess of Khwarazm, from the Haft Peykar
3. Bahram Gur placing the crown between the lions, from the Haft Peykar
4. Fitna carrying the cow on her back before Bahram Gur, from the Haft Peykar
5. Khusraw seated with Shirin, from Khusraw wa Shirin
6. An illuminated opening folio to Khusraw wa Shirin