Persian Art Glossary: The Terms Collectors Meet

This glossary defines 74 Persian art terms that collectors meet on museum labels, in auction catalogues and in gallery descriptions, from negargari and muraqqa to nastaliq, tazhib and Saqqakhaneh. Each definition is one to three sentences in plain English and names the museum, encyclopaedia or heritage body it comes from.

It is part of our guide to contemporary Iranian and Persian painting.

How to use it: the terms are grouped by theme, in six tables: painting and the book, calligraphy, ornament and pattern, materials and crafts, periods and movements, and subjects and stories. Look for a word in the group where you met it: words about books, albums and writing are in the first two tables, and words about carpets, tiles and ceramics are in the third and fourth. Persian words are written in Latin letters, and where museums spell a word in two ways, both are given. When a term has its own page in this guide, the term is a link to that page. The last column names the source, and the full reference is at the end of the page.

Key takeaways

• UNESCO inscribed the art of illumination, tazhib in Persian, in 2023 as the shared heritage of Azerbaijan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkiye and Uzbekistan, and says its main component is gold leaf or gold paint.
• The Smithsonian says nastaliq was suited to copying Persian verse and was used from Istanbul to Delhi by 1430.
• The British Institute of Persian Studies says shell gold is made by beating gold into thin leaf between layers of deerskin and grinding the leaf with honey.
• The Encyclopaedia Iranica says 15th-century writers called the arabesque eslimi and the lotus scroll, taken from Chinese designs, khatai.
• The Encyclopaedia Iranica says the carpet motif bota, "bush" or "shrub", is the teardrop motif known in the West from paisley shawls.
• The Met describes the Safavid kitabkhana, the court's "house of books", as "at once a library and a workshop".

Painting and the book

These are the words for the painted and decorated Persian book and the album, and for the steps of making them. Our page on Persian miniature painting explains how the pieces fit together.

Terms for Persian painting, the manuscript and the album

Term	What it means	Source
Persian miniature	The small, detailed paintings made for Persian manuscripts and albums. The art began to flourish under Ilkhanid patronage in the 13th century and reached its height under the Timurids, with Tabriz and Herat as centres of manuscript production.	British Institute of Persian Studies
Negargari	The Persian name for the classical miniature tradition. Our gallery defines it as detailed painting on paper built from fine line work, flat colour and applied gold, often set beside columns of Persian verse.	VanArtHub
Kitabkhana (ketabkhaneh)	The "house of books" of a royal court, "at once a library and a workshop". The Safavid Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp was made in one, with papermakers, scribes, painters, illuminators and binders each doing a part.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Frontispiece	The decorated opening page of a manuscript. In a royal Safavid book, illuminators drew its complex geometric designs after the paintings were finished.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Shamseh (shamsa)	A sunburst or rosette medallion painted in gold and colour. The Smithsonian holds a Persian page of the Jalayirid period with a shamsa filling one side, and LACMA holds a 16th-century illuminated page with a shamsa from Iran.	Smithsonian; LACMA
Sarlowh (sarlawh)	The illuminated heading at the top of a text page. On the Smithsonian's Jalayirid page it holds an inscription in white ornamental "eastern kufic".	Smithsonian
Tazhib	Illumination: the decoration of manuscript pages, calligraphy and miniatures with gold and colour. UNESCO says its main component is gold leaf or gold paint, with natural pigments.	UNESCO
Rulings	The coloured and gold lines that frame the text and pictures on a page. The Smithsonian's Jalayirid page is set "in gold, green and blue rulings on gold-sprinkled paper".	Smithsonian
Dyed and gold-sprinkled paper	Paper coloured with flowers, herbs or fruit juice, or sprinkled with gold or silver. White paper is rare in illustrated Persian manuscripts, and some painting treatises said a white ground weakened the eyes.	British Institute of Persian Studies
Marbled paper	Paper patterned by marbling, one of the methods of decorating paper developed by Timurid and Safavid craftsmen.	British Institute of Persian Studies
Pardakht	The final stage of painting, in which the painter renders the fine details. It requires "the highest level of technical artistry in Persian painting".	British Institute of Persian Studies
Burnishing	Polishing a finished gilded page. Safavid pages were burnished "with a smooth, hard stone such as agate or rock crystal".	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Muraqqa (moraqqa)	An album of single paintings, drawings and pieces of calligraphy mounted together. In 17th-century Isfahan, many single-page works were assembled in such albums with pieces of calligraphy.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Single-page painting	A painting or drawing made as a separate sheet, apart from any book. The Iranica says such works became "a viable alternative to manuscript illustrations" in the 17th century, the period of Reza Abbasi and his followers in Isfahan.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Siyah-qalam	"Black pen": drawings made in pen and ink. The term also names the artist or artists of a group of such drawings kept in albums at the Topkapi Palace Library in Istanbul.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Pardeh (parda)	A painted screen or canvas that a storyteller set up in a coffeehouse to tell a story, usually from the Shahnameh.	Encyclopaedia Iranica

Calligraphy

These words describe the tools, scripts and practice of Persian calligraphy. Our pages on types of Persian calligraphy and calligraphy in painting go further.

Terms for Persian calligraphy

Term	What it means	Source
Qalam	The reed pen. The reed should be mature, brown outside and white inside, and the nib is cut to different widths for different scripts.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Kufic	An early script of the Arabic alphabet. After the coming of Islam it was used for copies of the Qur'an and later for inscriptions on stone and coins.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Naskh	A script of the Arabic alphabet, used after the coming of Islam mainly for letters and documents. The Persians used their own variety of naskh for ordinary writing.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Thuluth (tholth)	A script that grew from the "majestic script", itself derived from Kufic. The early master Ebn Moqla wrote that kings and high officials used it for their decrees.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
The six scripts	Thuluth, naskh, reyhan, mohaqqaq, tawqi and reqa, the six scripts the master Yaqut Mostasemi, who died in the 1290s, chose to improve. They gradually replaced every other script except Kufic.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Ta'liq	A Persian script, whose name means "hanging", in use by the mid-13th century. Its joined letters allowed fast writing, which made it suitable for official letters.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Nastaliq	The Persian script developed in the second half of the 14th century by combining naskh with ta'liq. The Smithsonian says it was suited to copying Persian verse and was used "throughout the Persian-speaking world" by 1430.	Encyclopaedia Iranica; Smithsonian
Shekasteh-nastaliq	A faster form of nastaliq that emerged in the early 17th century. Some letters are shrunk, shekasta meaning "broken", and detached letters and words are sometimes joined.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Siah-mashq	A practice sheet on which a calligrapher wrote rows of letters and letter groups, usually in nastaliq or shekasteh-nastaliq. Such sheets often have a pleasing look of their own.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Sar-mashq	A model sheet for practice, used with the siah-mashq in teaching calligraphy.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Qet'a	A word with two uses in the sources. It names a single piece of calligraphy mounted in an album, and also cut-paper decoupage, which Persian manuscripts used mostly for calligraphic passages.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Monabbat-kari	Filigree work: fine cut-out ornament in paper or leather, used on Persian manuscripts and bookbindings.	Encyclopaedia Iranica

Ornament and pattern

These motifs appear in illumination, carpets, tiles and painting borders. Several are explained further on our page on symbols in Persian painting.

Terms for Persian ornament and pattern

Term	What it means	Source
Eslimi	The Persian name for the arabesque, a stylized plant scroll whose leaves split in two. It became a major feature of tile decoration in the Timurid and Safavid periods.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Khatai	A lotus scroll, taken from Chinese designs and turned into a vine. 15th-century writers named it khatai and set it against or wove it through the eslimi.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Gol-e eslimi	The palmette, literally "arabesque flower": a stylized fan-shaped motif that resembles a lotus flower cut in section.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Toranj	A medallion at the centre of a carpet design. In a lachak-toranj design there is a medallion in the centre and a quarter medallion in each corner.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Boteh (bota)	A motif shaped like a leaf with a curved tip; the word means "bush" or "shrub". It is the teardrop motif known in the West from paisley shawls.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Gol o bolbol	"Rose and nightingale", the beloved and the lover of Persian poetry. It was the main decorative theme of the Safavid and Qajar eras.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Gol o morgh	"Flower and bird" painting, the wider genre of which the rose and nightingale is one theme.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Chahar bagh	"Four garden": the classic plan of a formal Persian garden, a walled park divided by water channels. The English word paradise comes from the Persian for "walled garden".	Aga Khan Museum
Cloud band	A cloud motif that entered Persian painting from Chinese art in the Ilkhanid period, together with lotuses, peonies, dragons and phoenixes.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Muqarnas	Units shaped like stalactites or honeycomb cells, used as decoration in Islamic architecture. The Met reconstructed a room from Nishapur in Iran that includes stucco muqarnas.	LACMA; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Materials and crafts

These words describe what Persian painters and craftsmen worked with, and the crafts that share their skills. Our page on Persian lacquer painting covers pen boxes and book covers.

Terms for materials and related crafts

Term	What it means	Source
Mineral pigments	Colours ground from stones, such as lapis lazuli for blue and malachite for green, along with earths such as red ochre and plant dyes such as madder.	Metropolitan Museum of Art; British Institute of Persian Studies
Binder	What holds the pigment to the surface. According to 13th-century texts, gum arabic was used for colours on paper and egg yolk for colours on wood.	British Institute of Persian Studies
Shell gold	Gold paint made by beating pure gold into thin leaf between layers of deerskin and grinding the leaf with honey.	British Institute of Persian Studies
Lacquer painting	Painting on objects of papier-mache coated with plaster, painted in watercolours and sealed with transparent lacquer or varnish. It flourished in the Qajar period.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Qalamdan	A pen box. With mirror cases, book covers and caskets, it was one of the main objects decorated in lacquer painting.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Khatam-kari	Persian wood inlay. Strips of bone and rare woods are glued in bundles, sliced into thin star shapes and set in mosaic patterns on furniture and boxes. It has been a specialty of Shiraz in the 20th century.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Mina (minakari)	Enamel: a glass paste, coloured by metal oxides and fused by heat, used to decorate metal. The Persian word may come from a Middle Persian word for the heavenly or spiritual world.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Mina'i ware	Pottery painted in several colours over the glaze. The name comes from the Persian for "enameled".	LACMA
Lajvardina	Pottery glazed deep blue and painted over the glaze. The name comes from lajvard, the Persian word for lapis lazuli.	LACMA
Luster	A ceramic technique in which silver and copper compounds are painted over a fired glaze and fired again, giving a metallic shine.	LACMA
Fritware	A man-made ceramic body that combines silica, glass frit and fine white clay.	LACMA
Tiraz	Cloth with an inscribed band naming the ruler, the date and the place it was made. The word comes from the Persian for embroidery.	LACMA

Periods and movements

These are the dynasties and schools that date Persian art on museum labels. Our page on the history of Persian art follows them in order.

Periods, schools and movements in Persian art

Term	What it means	Source
Achaemenid	The Persian empire of 550 to 330 BC, formed by Cyrus II. Darius I and his successors built and decorated Persepolis.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sasanian	The dynasty that ruled greater Iran from 224 to 651, before the Arab conquest. Its silver vessels are its best-known objects.	LACMA; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Samanid	A Persian dynasty that ruled Khurasan and Transoxiana in the late ninth and tenth centuries. LACMA says its age "witnessed a rebirth of Persian culture, marking the rise of modern Persian literature".	LACMA
Ilkhanid	The Mongol dynasty that ruled Iran from 1256 to 1353. Its arts of the book absorbed Chinese motifs and ways of showing space.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jalayirid	A dynasty that the Smithsonian dates 1340 to 1432. Its Persian page with a shamsa, listed under painting and the book, is from this period.	Smithsonian
Timurid	The dynasty founded by Timur in 1370, which lasted to 1507. The Met says its Herat school "is often regarded as the apogee of Persian painting".	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Safavid	The dynasty that ruled Iran from 1501 to 1722 and made Shi'a Islam the state religion. Shah Tahmasp and Shah Abbas were its great patrons.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Isfahan school	Painting and calligraphy made in Isfahan between the years 1597 and 1598, when it became the Safavid capital, and the Afghan invasion of 1722. The term was first used for the work of Reza Abbasi and his followers.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Qajar	The dynasty that ruled Iran from 1785 to 1925 in the dates of the Encyclopaedia Iranica; the Met gives 1779 to 1924. Fath Ali Shah commissioned life-size portraits of himself and his sons for his palaces.	Encyclopaedia Iranica; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dar al-Funun	Iran's first institution of higher learning on Western models, opened in 1851. It later taught painting, lithography, photography and music.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Coffeehouse painting	A Persian folk art of large narrative paintings shown in coffeehouses, usually of Shahnameh episodes, with some likeness to miniature painting.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Naqqali	Dramatic storytelling in verse or prose, sometimes with music and painted scrolls. UNESCO placed it on its list of heritage in need of urgent safeguarding in 2011.	UNESCO
Saqqakhaneh	A modern movement named in 1963 by the critic Karim Emami after the public water fountains that commemorate the Shi'i martyrs of Karbala. Its artists drew on votive objects, popular culture and ancient Iran.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Heech	Persian for "nothing". Parviz Tanavoli made the word into a series of sculptures from the early 1960s.	Metropolitan Museum of Art

Subjects and stories

These are the books, stories and figures that Persian painters illustrate most. Our page on Persian poetry in painting covers the poets behind them.

Subjects and stories in Persian painting

Term	What it means	Source
Shahnameh (Shahnama)	The Book of Kings, Ferdowsi's epic of more than 100,000 lines, which recounts the history of Iran from the beginning of time to the Islamic conquest in the seventh century.	Smithsonian
Farr	Divine glory, which the Smithsonian calls "an essential attribute of Persian kingship". In the Shahnameh, King Jamshid loses his farr through pride.	Smithsonian
Div	A demon of the Shahnameh; the Black Demon, div-i siyah, kills the son of the first king, Kayumars. Our gallery's page for Amir Fazelian says his "Div" (Monster) series turns ancient creatures into mirrors of modern anxiety.	Smithsonian; VanArtHub
Khamsa	"Quintet": a set of five long poems, above all the Khamsa of Nizami of Ganja, one of the texts that inspired Persian painters from the 13th to the 17th century.	Metropolitan Museum of Art; British Institute of Persian Studies
Khosrow and Shirin	The second poem of Nizami's Khamsa, a love story about the last great Sasanian ruler, Khosrow II, and the Armenian princess Shirin.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Layla and Majnun	The third romantic poem of Nizami's Khamsa, written in 1188, about two children in love in the Arabian desert who are forced apart. Majnun's longing is read as the mystic's longing for God.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mantiq al-Tayr	Attar's poem of the birds, in which thirty birds seek their king, the Simorgh. The Met holds painted pages from a 15th-century Herat copy.	Encyclopaedia Iranica; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Simorgh	A mythical bird. In Sufi poetry it is a metaphor for God.	Encyclopaedia Iranica
Mi'raj	The Prophet Muhammad's ascent to heaven on the steed Buraq. Persian poets from the 13th century on opened their long poems with a description of it; the Met's example is a painting on folio 3v of a Bustan of Sa'di.	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Nowruz	The Persian new year, on the first day of Farvardin, 21 March. In the Shahnameh, King Jamshid establishes it.	Smithsonian

Terms in one painting

A single album page can use a dozen of these words. Kamal al-Din Ghotb's painting Muraqqa': The Gold Shamseh, one of the works in the Kamal al-Din Ghotb collection, is described on its product page as "an album page in the muraqqa' tradition, built around a gold shamseh at its centre", with a band of arabesque. Around it are an illuminated panel of nasta'liq in cloud-shaped spaces on gold, two gol-o-morgh panels of roses and songbirds divided by a strip of marbled paper, diagonal "chalipa" couplets on a lilac ground, a figurative miniature of a falconry party, and "a black-ink siyah-qalam drawing of long-tailed birds" moving "through khataei foliage". The gallery's page for Kamal al-Din Ghotb says he has practised Persian painting for 41 years, in oil and gold on paper.

Reading the painting with the glossary: the muraqqa is the album format, the shamseh is the central sunburst, nastaliq is the script, gol o morgh is the flower-and-bird theme, marbled paper is one of the decorated papers, siyah-qalam is the ink drawing, and khatai is the Chinese-derived vine. Our pages on the words Persian and Iranian and Persian art and Islamic art explain the words Persian and Iranian and the term Islamic art.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between eslimi and khatai?

Eslimi and khatai are two plant scrolls used together in Persian ornament. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says 15th-century writers used eslimi for the arabesque, a stylized scroll with split leaves, and khatai for the lotus scroll, taken from Chinese designs and turned into a vine. The two were often set against each other or woven together, and both became major features of Timurid and Safavid tilework.

What is a toranj in a Persian carpet?

A toranj in a Persian carpet is the medallion at the centre of the design, according to the Encyclopaedia Iranica. In the design called lachak-toranj, the carpet has a medallion in the centre and a quarter medallion in each corner. The Iranica gives the Ardabil carpets as an example of a design centred on a medallion.

What does siyah-qalam mean?

Siyah-qalam means "black pen" in Persian and refers to drawings made in pen and ink. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says the term also names the artist or artists of a group of such drawings of the 14th and 15th centuries kept in albums at the Topkapi Palace Library in Istanbul, some of the most debated drawings in the field.

What is lajvardina pottery?

Lajvardina pottery is a type of ceramic glazed deep blue and then decorated over the glaze, according to LACMA's glossary of Islamic art. Its name comes from lajvard, the Persian word for lapis lazuli, the blue stone that Persian painters also ground for their blue pigment, as the Met describes. LACMA lists the term in the glossary to its Islamic galleries.

What is mina'i ware?

Mina'i ware is pottery painted in several colours over the glaze, according to LACMA's glossary of Islamic art. Its name comes from the Persian word for "enameled". The Encyclopaedia Iranica traces the Persian word mina, enamel, possibly to a Middle Persian word for the spiritual world or heaven, formed from an older word for sky or blue.

What is khatam-kari?

Khatam-kari is the best-known Persian technique of wood inlay, according to the Encyclopaedia Iranica. Strips of bone and rare woods are glued together in bundles, and each bundle is sliced into thin star and other shapes that are glued in mosaic patterns onto furniture and boxes. The Iranica says it has been a specialty of Shiraz in the 20th century.

What is shell gold?

Shell gold is gold paint used by Persian painters and illuminators. The British Institute of Persian Studies describes the method: pure gold is beaten between layers of deerskin into a thin leaf, and the leaf is then ground with honey. UNESCO notes that gold leaf or gold paint is the main component of the art of illumination, inscribed on its heritage list in 2023.

What was the kitabkhana of a Persian court?

The kitabkhana of a Persian court was its "house of books", which the Met describes as "at once a library and a workshop". In the Safavid kitabkhana, papermakers prepared the sheets, scribes wrote the text, painters and illuminators decorated the pages, and binders sewed and covered the finished book before it was presented to the patron.

Who chose the six classical scripts of calligraphy?

The six classical scripts of calligraphy were chosen by the master Yaqut Mostasemi, who died in the 1290s, according to the Encyclopaedia Iranica. He improved thuluth, naskh, reyhan, mohaqqaq, tawqi and reqa, and these six gradually replaced every other script except Kufic. The Iranica adds that Persian pupils of his carried the style forward.

What is tiraz?

Tiraz is inscribed cloth: a textile decorated with a long band naming the ruler with his titles, and the date and place it was made, according to LACMA. LACMA says the word comes from the Persian for embroidery, and that the inscriptions could be embroidered or woven directly into the cloth.

What is gol o morgh painting?

Gol o morgh painting is Persian flower and bird painting. The Encyclopaedia Iranica describes the rose and nightingale theme, gol o bolbol, as a sub-theme of flower and bird painting, known as gol o botta or gol o morgh, and says it was the main decorative theme of the Safavid and Qajar eras, on everything from ceramics to manuscripts.

What does farr mean in the Shahnameh?

Farr in the Shahnameh is divine glory, which the Smithsonian calls "an essential attribute of Persian kingship". In the story of King Jamshid, the king introduces the sciences and crafts and founds Nowruz, then grows proud, loses his farr and is killed by the tyrant Zahhak.

References

1. CALLIGRAPHY. Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1990; Internet Archive copy of 3 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The reed pen, Kufic, naskh, thuluth, the six scripts, ta'liq, nastaliq, shekasteh-nastaliq, siah-mashq and sar-mashq.
2. DECORATION. Priscilla P. Soucek, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1994; Internet Archive copy of 29 August 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The eslimi and khatai scrolls.
3. CARPETS iv. Knotted-pile carpets: Designs, motifs, and patterns. Annette Ittig, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1990; Internet Archive copy of 23 May 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. Toranj, lachak-toranj, the arabesque, the bota and the palmette.
4. CRAFTS. Mehdi Ebrahimian, Iran Ala Firouz and Jay Gluck, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1993; Internet Archive copy of 21 May 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. Khatam-kari wood inlay.
5. ENAMEL. Layla Diba, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1998; Internet Archive copy of 24 December 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The word mina and the definition of enamel.
6. CUT PAPER. Barbara Schmitz, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1993; Internet Archive copy of 15 August 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Qet'a as decoupage and monabbat-kari as filigree work.
7. SIAH-QALAM (English: black pen). Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 20 April 2009; Internet Archive copy of 15 August 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The meaning of the term and the Topkapi albums.
8. ISFAHAN xi. School of Painting and Calligraphy. Massumeh Farhad, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 2007; Internet Archive copy of 5 December 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Isfahan school, single-page painting, albums and qet'a.
9. COFFEEHOUSE. Ali Al-e Dawud, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1992; Internet Archive copy of 23 May 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. Coffeehouse painting and the storyteller's parda.
10. GOL O BOLBOL (English: rose and nightingale). Layla Diba, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 2001; Internet Archive copy of 29 March 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Gol o bolbol, gol o morgh and the dates of the Safavid and Qajar eras.
11. SIMORG (English: the Simorgh, a mythical bird). Hanns-Peter Schmidt, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 20 July 2002; Internet Archive copy of 13 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Simorgh and Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr.
12. ART IN IRAN x.1 Art and Architecture of the Qajar Period. Jennifer M. Scarce, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1986; Internet Archive copy of 25 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Qajar lacquer painting on papier-mache and the qalamdan.
13. Making a Royal Manuscript. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Undated; Internet Archive copy of 5 March 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The kitabkhana, mineral pigments, the frontispiece and burnishing.
14. The Art of the Ilkhanid Period (1256 to 1353). Linda Komaroff and Suzan Yalman, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2001; Internet Archive copy of 20 April 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Ilkhanid dates and the Chinese motifs, including cloud bands.
15. The Art of the Timurid Period (ca. 1370 to 1507). Suzan Yalman, based on original work by Linda Komaroff, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2002; Internet Archive copy of 7 March 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Timurid dates and the Herat school.
16. The Art of the Safavids before 1600. Suzan Yalman, based on original work by Linda Komaroff, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2002; Internet Archive copy of 18 January 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Safavid dates, the state religion and the royal patrons.
17. Nineteenth-Century Iran: Art and the Advent of Modernity. Maryam Ekhtiar and Marika Sardar, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2004; Internet Archive copy of 28 May 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Met's Qajar dates, life-size portraits and the Dar al-Funun.
18. Modern Iranian Art. Maryam Ekhtiar and Julia Rooney, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published April 2014; Internet Archive copy of 16 December 2024. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Saqqakhaneh movement and Tanavoli's heech.
19. The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550 to 330 B.C.). Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2004; Internet Archive copy of 6 April 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Achaemenid dates, Cyrus II and Persepolis.
20. The Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 A.D.). Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Blair Fowlkes-Childs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2003, revised April 2016; Internet Archive copy of 15 March 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Sasanian silver.
21. Recurring Themes in the Art of the Islamic World. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Undated; Internet Archive copy of 15 August 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. Stonepaste as an innovation in ceramics.
22. Metropolitan Museum to Open Renovated Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Galleries opened 1 November 2011; Internet Archive copy of 6 June 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The muqarnas of the Nishapur room and the Herat pages of Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr.
23. "The Mi'raj or The Night Flight of Muhammad on his Steed Buraq", Folio 3v from a Bustan of Sa'di. Sultan Muhammad Nur, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Object record, undated; Internet Archive copy of 3 December 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The mi'raj in Persian poetry and painting.
24. "Marriage of Khusrau and Shirin", Folio 104 from a Khamsa of Nizami of Ganja. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Object record, undated; Internet Archive copy of 19 January 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Khamsa as a quintet and the story of Khosrow and Shirin.
25. Laila and Majnun from a Khamsa of Nizami of Ganja. Ja'far Baisunghuri, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Object record, undated; Internet Archive copy of 17 February 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The date and story of Layla and Majnun.
26. Islamic Art Collection at LACMA (with glossary). Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. Lajvardina, luster, mina'i, fritware, muqarnas, the Sasanian dates, the Samanids and tiraz.
27. Illuminated Page with Shamsa (Sunburst or Rosette Ornament). Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Object record, undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. A 16th-century illuminated page with a shamsa from Iran.
28. Folio from a Khusraw u Shirin by Nizami; recto: Sun-burst medallion (Shamsa); verso: text and illuminated heading (sarlawh). Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, F1931.37. Object record, undated; Internet Archive copy of 30 March 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The shamsa, the sarlawh, rulings, gold-sprinkled paper and the Jalayirid dates.
29. The Shahnama: 1000 Years of the Persian Book of Kings. Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Exhibition held 23 October 2010 to 17 April 2011; Internet Archive copy of 29 March 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The Shahnama, farr, the Black Demon and Nowruz.
30. Nasta'liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy. Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Exhibition held 13 September 2014 to 3 May 2015; Internet Archive copy of 9 November 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. Nastaliq and its spread by 1430.
31. A Note on Persian Miniature Painting: Materials and Techniques. Anahita Alavi, British Institute of Persian Studies. Published 22 October 2019. Accessed 27 September 2026. The history of the miniature, paper, pigments, binders, shell gold and pardakht.
32. Paradise Garden: The Wagner Garden Carpet from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. Aga Khan Museum. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The chahar bagh and the Persian origin of the word paradise.
33. Art of illumination: Tazhib and related names. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Inscribed 2023. Accessed 27 September 2026. The definition of illumination and the five countries of the inscription.
34. Naqqali, Iranian dramatic story-telling. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Inscribed 2011. Accessed 27 September 2026. The definition of naqqali and its inscription.
35. Muraqqa': The Gold Shamseh. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The description of the album page and its parts.
36. Kamal al-Din Ghotb. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The gallery's definition of negargari and the painter's practice.
37. Amir Fazelian. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The gallery's description of his Div series.

Checked 27 September 2026. If something here is out of date, write to us and we will correct it.