Tazhib is the Persian word for illumination: the ornament in gold and colour painted on the pages of manuscripts, around calligraphy and around paintings. Its main forms are the shamseh, a sunburst medallion that could hold the owner's name; the unvan and the sarlowh, decorated panels at the head of a text; the jadval, the ruled frame lines around the text; and the hashiyeh, the decorated margin. UNESCO added the art of illumination to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2023, as a shared practice of Azerbaijan, Iran, Tajikistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan.
This page explains each part of an illuminated page with the museum or scholar that describes it, how the gold was prepared, what the illuminator did in the royal book workshop, and how illumination is practised today. It ends with a new illuminated album page in our gallery. It is part of our guide to contemporary Iranian and Persian painting.
Key takeaways
- UNESCO describes illumination as "a centuries-old decorative art practised on the pages of manuscripts, calligraphic texts and miniatures", whose main component is gold leaf or gold paint.
- The Cleveland Museum of Art describes the shamseh on a Shahnameh page from Shiraz of 1444 as a sunburst of floral and geometric shapes "painted in precious pigments and gold to reference divine light", which may have been meant to hold the owner's name.
- The Met says illuminators decorated the borders, chapter headings and text frames of a royal manuscript with gold and designed its frontispiece, and that the gilded pages were burnished with agate or rock crystal.
- The British Institute of Persian Studies says shell gold was made by pounding gold between layers of deerskin into thin leaf and grinding the leaf with honey.
- The Encyclopaedia Iranica defines the jadval as usually three parallel lines around the text, the middle one thicker and in orange-yellow or gold.
- A British Library post by Vivek Gupta notes that there is "no authoritative handbook" for these terms, and that the word unvan is used for anything from a headpiece to a double-page frontispiece.
What tazhib is
Vivek Gupta, writing for the British Library in 2019, defines manuscript illumination as the application of reflective substances to the surfaces of a book: its binding, its pages and even the edges of the pages. Illumination is most commonly associated with gold, Gupta writes, but silver and tin also give shine, and that the "gold" was often a liquid gold or an alloy that could be flattened, painted, scattered or pricked to make different effects. UNESCO's description adds natural pigments and, in recent years, watercolour and gouache, which is an opaque watercolour.
The names of the art are linked to gilding. Gupta notes that the old texts name illuminators mudhahhib and illumination tadhhib, words formed on the Arabic root dh-h-b, or use the Persian word zar. The Ajam Media Collective gives tazhib, tezhip and tadhhib as the Persian, Turkish and Arabic forms of the same word. The Encyclopaedia Iranica entry on calligraphy by Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi uses three terms for a decorated margin or heading: morassa' if it is in colour only, mozahhab if it is in gilt, and mozahhab-e morassa' if it combines gilt and colour.
Illumination belongs to the book. It frames the calligraphy described on our page on Persian calligraphy in painting, and the paintings described on our page on Persian miniature painting. Our Persian art glossary gives short definitions of these and related terms.
The parts of an illuminated page
Gupta lists the places where illumination appears: the edges, the borders, the ruled lines (jadval), the rosettes (shamseh), the frontispieces (sarlowh), the headpieces (unvan), the headings, the space between lines, the writing itself, and the edges of the pages. He warns that "there is no authoritative handbook for these terms" in Arabic, Persian, Turkish or Urdu, and that the names developed through custom. The table gives each term as the named source uses it.
The parts of an illuminated Persian page, as the sources define them
| Term |
What it is |
Where it appears |
Source |
| Shamseh |
A sunburst or rosette medallion |
An opening page, sometimes holding the owner's name, a dedication or the title |
Cleveland Museum of Art; Austrian National Library |
| Unvan |
An illuminated headpiece; the word means "title" |
The top of the first text page or a chapter |
British Library; Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Sarlowh |
An illuminated heading or frontispiece |
The opening of a book or of a section |
British Library; Smithsonian; Harvard Art Museums |
| Jadval |
Usually three parallel ruled lines, the middle one thicker and in orange-yellow or gold |
Around the block of text |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Kamand |
A thinner outer border line |
Further out from the jadval |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Tash'ir |
Fine drawings of flowers, shrubs or animals |
Between the inner and outer borders |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Hashiyeh |
A coloured or gilded margin |
Frontispieces and chapter headings |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Toranj, sar-toranj and lachak |
A large central medallion, smaller medallions above and below, and quarter-medallions in the corners |
The back of the frontispiece, with the title and author's name |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
The shamseh
Museums translate shamseh as "sunburst", as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Smithsonian do, and the British Library post calls it a rosette or starburst. The Cleveland Museum of Art owns the right-hand page of a double-page frontispiece from a Shahnameh made in Shiraz in 1444, in the Timurid period. It describes the shamseh at the centre as "an exquisite symmetrical pattern of floral and geometric shapes painted in precious pigments and gold to reference divine light", and notes that it "might have been intended to contain a name or portrait identifying the manuscript's original owner", although in this copy it is empty.
Other shamsehs are filled. A copy of Nizami's Khamsa finished in 1500, now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, opens with a shamseh that the catalogue calls "a dedicatory medallion". Its gold central star and pendants carry good wishes for an unnamed owner, and six surrounding panels give the titles of the work in white script. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art holds a detached page from a Khusraw and Shirin of the Khamsa, made in Iran and dated c. 1400, with a shamseh on the front and an illuminated heading on the back. Gupta illustrates the shamseh of a 1517 manuscript of the works of Amir Khusraw in the British Library, and compares the gold dome of a fifteenth-century shrine in India to "an illuminated shamsah or starburst".
Gupta also links illumination to light. He points to the Light verse of the Qur'an, which begins "God is the light of the heavens and the earth", and notes that early readers saw manuscripts by lamp and candlelight, in conditions different from the lighting of a modern library. Our page on symbols in Persian painting covers other images with a meaning in Persian art.
The unvan and the sarlowh
A reader of catalogues will meet both words for the decorated panel at the head of a text, and the sources use them in overlapping ways. Gupta says unvan literally means "title", so he uses it for the headpiece, and adds that the British Library's Persian catalogue edited by Rieu uses unvan for "anything from illuminated headpiece to frontispiece (single or double page) to heading". The Iranica entry on calligraphy uses onvan for chapter titles.
The Iranica entry uses sar-lowheh for the "intricate vignettes" that adorn frontispieces and chapter headings, and describes their designs as symmetrical, with interlaced, spreading scrolls. The Smithsonian catalogues the back of its Khamsa page as "text with one main illuminated heading (sarlawh)" written in a white ornamental script the catalogue calls "eastern kufic". Harvard Art Museums holds an illuminated sarlowh of 1489, from the Aq Qoyunlu period, made for the Sharaf-nama section of a Khamsa of Nizami, in ink, colours and gold on paper. Gupta applies the same word to a whole painted opening: the Ascension of the Prophet forming "the sarlawḥ (frontispiece)" of a Khamsa of Amir Khusraw made in Safavid Qazvin in 1571, where gold fills the border cartouches, the clouds and the flames. Kamal al-Din Ghotb's Mi'raj paints the same subject; its product page describes the rider carried upward "through scrolling gold clouds by a host of angels".
The Iranica also describes the page behind the frontispiece. It carries a large central medallion called a toranj, meaning citron, with the title and the author's name, smaller medallions above and below called sar-toranj, and quarter-medallions called lachak in the corners. The Iranica notes that a similar design appears on certain carpets and on the portals of mosques and shrines, and that the words toranj and lachak are also used by carpet weavers. Our page on Persian rugs and Persian painting follows that link between the book and the carpet.
Frames and margins
The Iranica describes the jadval as usually three close parallel lines around the text: the middle line thicker and in a bright colour such as orange-yellow or gold, the outer and inner lines thinner and in black or dark blue. When the text looks small on the page, a thinner outer line, the kamand, meaning "noose", is added further out, and the space between the two is often filled with tash'ir, fine drawings of flowers, shrubs or animals, or with gold illumination. Frontispieces and chapter headings get coloured margins, the hashiyeh.
The British Institute of Persian Studies describes the last stage of a painted page in the same terms: a border made of a series of lines of different thicknesses, sometimes with flowers, leaves and sprinkled gold. The Smithsonian's page dated c. 1400 shows how the frames were varied: the front is set in gold, green and blue rulings on gold-sprinkled paper, and the back in gold rulings with a blue outer frame of flowers and tendrils. The Iranica adds that calligraphy pages could be decorated with a pale or gold-speckled background.
Preparing the gold
The British Institute of Persian Studies says pure gold was pounded between layers of deerskin until it formed a thin leaf, and the leaves were then ground with honey to make shell gold, a gold paint. After the gold was applied, the Met says, the gilded pages were burnished, or rubbed smooth, with a hard stone such as agate or rock crystal to give them a polished surface. Gupta notes that the same material could be flattened, painted, scattered over the page or pricked to catch the light. Our page on Persian miniature painting describes the pigments that went with it.
Illuminators today still name the gold they use. The Ajam Media Collective's 2017 profile of the New York illuminator Behnaz Karjoo lists her materials work by work: 22-karat yellow gold, 23-karat red gold and 12-karat white gold, with gouache, watercolour, and natural pigments from lapis lazuli and turquoise.
Materials and tools of Persian illumination, as the sources name them
| Material or tool |
What the source says |
Source |
| Gold leaf |
Gold pounded between layers of deerskin into a thin leaf |
British Institute of Persian Studies |
| Shell gold |
Gold leaf ground with honey into a paint |
British Institute of Persian Studies |
| Silver and tin |
Other metals used for shine |
British Library |
| Agate or rock crystal |
Hard stones used to burnish the gilded pages |
The Met |
| Natural pigments |
Used with gold; lapis lazuli and turquoise in one modern illuminator's work |
UNESCO; Ajam Media Collective |
| Watercolour and gouache |
Synthetic paints that have become widespread in recent years |
UNESCO |
The illuminator in the royal book workshop
A royal Persian manuscript was a team's work. The Met's educator page on the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp describes the Safavid kitabkhana, "at once a library and a workshop". A director fixed the layout, scribes wrote the text in the spaces assigned to it, and painters then made the pictures. "When the paintings were finished," the Met says, "illuminators contributed to the overall sumptuousness of the manuscript by adorning the borders, chapter headings, and text frames with gold." Most importantly, it adds, they created the complex geometric designs of the frontispiece, and then the gilded pages were burnished.
Illuminators also worked beyond the page. The Iranica entry on bookbinding by Duncan Haldane says illuminators and miniature painters played as important a part as the binders in the painted lacquer bindings of the Safavid period, which our page on Persian lacquer painting describes. Some court painters also illuminated. The Iranica says the Qajar court painter Mirza Baba painted "the lavish illuminations and marginal decorations" of the manuscript of Fath-Ali Shah's poems given to King George III; our page on Qajar painting tells his story.
Book artists of this period seldom signed their work. The historian Gholamreza Amirkhani writes that fifteenth-century binders and cover makers seldom wrote their names on their bindings, and he found only one fifteenth-century manuscript with its binder named, a copy of the Divan of Imad Faqih made in Yazd in 1477, and says the binder was named there because he was also the book's scribe, illuminator and cover maker.
Illumination today
UNESCO's inscription of 2023, decision 18.COM 8.b.18, describes illumination as a living practice. It can be seen today in manuscripts, miniatures and calligraphy "as well as in stand-alone pieces of art". It is passed on through apprenticeships and through formal and non-formal education, including universities, academies, research centres and public and private workshops. UNESCO says it is common to decorate religious texts, literary and historical manuscripts, marriage deeds and even commercial treaties with illumination, and that illuminators' traditional methods are also used to restore old manuscripts.
The art is also practised in North America. The Ajam Media Collective's profile describes Behnaz Karjoo, whom it calls an Iranian-American illuminator, working in her New York studio. She trained for five years under the Turkish master Mujgan Baskoylu and received her ijaza, a certificate of mastery, as a Master of Illumination in 2016. The profile says most of her pieces take four to six months to finish, with some painted flowers less than a millimetre wide.
Illumination in our gallery: The Gold Shamseh
Kamal al-Din Ghotb's Muraqqa': The Gold Shamseh is an album page built around a shamseh. Its product page describes "a sunburst medallion ringed in gold knotwork", with a lapis-blue field carrying a six-petalled orange rosette among white and turquoise lotus blossoms on gold vine scrolls, and black cartouches of gold leaf-sprays set into a red band of arabesque. Around it, the page says, the painting gathers "one panel of each craft of the Persian book arts": a large illuminated panel with nasta'liq calligraphy in cloud-shaped spaces on a dense gold ground, pressed with oval seals; two gol-o-morgh panels of crimson roses, white blossoms and yellow poppies with a songbird and a teal bird, divided by a strip of orange marbled paper; couplets written on the diagonal on a lilac ground; a falconry party painted on gold; and and a black-ink drawing, siyah-qalam, of long-tailed birds moving through what the page calls khataei foliage.
The product page gives the medium as oil and gold on paper, the size as 30 by 40 cm, and the year as 2026, and says each panel is drawn and coloured by hand in oil and then finished with gold. The painter's page says he has practised Persian painting for 41 years and works in the classical miniature tradition. Our page on Persian miniature painting explains the muraqqa, or album, that the painting's title refers to. See more of his work in the Kamal al-Din Ghotb collection. Every painting ships free and insured, with a 14-day return from delivery, a full refund and return shipping paid by us.
Frequently asked questions
What does tazhib mean?
Tazhib is the Persian word for illumination, the gold and colour ornament painted on manuscript pages, around calligraphy and around paintings. A British Library post by Vivek Gupta notes that the old texts name illumination and illuminators with words built on the Arabic root dh-h-b or the Persian word zar, and the Encyclopaedia Iranica uses mozahhab for ornament done in gilt. UNESCO names gold leaf or gold paint as its main component.
What is a shamseh in a Persian manuscript?
A shamseh in a Persian manuscript is a sunburst or rosette medallion, usually on an opening page. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes the shamseh of a Shiraz Shahnameh of 1444 as a symmetrical pattern of floral and geometric shapes in precious pigments and gold, meant to reference divine light. The Austrian National Library's Khamsa of 1500 opens with one that its catalogue calls a dedicatory medallion.
What was written inside a shamseh?
The inside of a shamseh could hold the name of the manuscript's owner, a dedication, blessings or the title of the work. The Austrian National Library's Khamsa of 1500 carries good wishes for an unnamed owner, with the titles of the work in six surrounding panels. The Cleveland Museum of Art's shamseh of 1444 may have been meant for the owner's name or portrait, but it was left empty.
What is the difference between an unvan and a sarlowh?
The unvan and the sarlowh are both illuminated panels at the head of a text, and catalogues use the words in overlapping ways. A British Library post says unvan literally means title and is used for the headpiece, while the library's Persian catalogue edited by Rieu uses it for anything from a headpiece to a double-page frontispiece. Smithsonian and Harvard records use sarlawh for an illuminated heading.
What is a jadval in Persian manuscripts?
A jadval in Persian manuscripts is the frame of ruled lines around the text. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says it usually has three close parallel lines, the middle one thicker and in orange-yellow or gold, the outer ones thinner and in black or dark blue. A thinner outer line called a kamand may be added, with fine drawings or gold in between.
What is a toranj on the back of a frontispiece?
A toranj on the back of a frontispiece is a large central medallion, named after the citron fruit, that holds the book's title and the author's name, according to the Encyclopaedia Iranica. Smaller medallions called sar-toranj sit above and below it, and quarter-medallions called lachak fill the corners. The Iranica notes that carpet weavers also use the words toranj and lachak.
Which metals did Persian illuminators use besides gold?
Persian illuminators also used silver and tin to give pages shine, according to a British Library post by Vivek Gupta. He notes that the gold itself was often a liquid gold or an alloy in several hues, which could be flattened, painted, scattered or pricked on the page. After gilding, the Met says, pages were burnished with agate or rock crystal.
Who did the illumination in a royal Persian manuscript?
Illumination in a royal Persian manuscript was done by illuminators working in the court kitabkhana, a library and workshop, after the scribes and painters had finished. The Met says they decorated the borders, chapter headings and text frames with gold and designed the frontispiece. Some court painters also illuminated: the Encyclopaedia Iranica credits Mirza Baba with the illumination of Fath-Ali Shah's poems.
When did UNESCO list the art of illumination?
UNESCO inscribed the art of illumination on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2023, by decision 18.COM 8.b.18. The listing is shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Tajikistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, and its title gives the local names Təzhib, Tazhib, Zarhalkori, Tezhip and Naqqoshlik. UNESCO describes gold leaf or gold paint as the main component of the art.
How is tazhib taught today?
Tazhib is taught today through apprenticeships and through formal and non-formal education, including universities, academies, research centres and public and private workshops, according to UNESCO. The Ajam Media Collective describes the New York illuminator Behnaz Karjoo training for five years under the Turkish master Mujgan Baskoylu before receiving her ijaza, a certificate of mastery, in 2016.
What does Kamal al-Din Ghotb's Gold Shamseh painting show?
Kamal al-Din Ghotb's Muraqqa': The Gold Shamseh shows an album page built around a gold sunburst medallion with a lapis-blue field and an orange rosette, according to its product page. Around it are an illuminated calligraphy panel on gold, two flower-and-bird panels, diagonal couplets on lilac, a falconry party on gold and a black-ink bird drawing. It is oil and gold on paper, 30 by 40 cm.
References
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Emanating light: Illumination in Islamic manuscripts. Vivek Gupta, British Library Asian and African studies blog. Published 8 August 2019; Internet Archive copy of 8 September 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The definition of illumination, the terms shamseh, sarlowh, unvan and jadval, the metals used, and illumination and light.
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CALLIGRAPHY. Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1990; Internet Archive copy of 3 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The jadval, kamand, tash'ir, hashiyeh, sar-lowheh, toranj and lachak, and the terms morassa' and mozahhab.
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Art of illumination: Təzhib/Tazhib/Zarhalkori/Tezhip/Naqqoshlik. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Inscribed 2023. Accessed 27 September 2026. The description of illumination, the five states, its uses and how it is passed on.
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Shamsa (recto) from right folio from a double-page frontispiece of a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi. The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.169.a. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The shamseh of a Shiraz Shahnameh of 1444 and its purpose.
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Nizami Ganjavi, Khamsa ('Quintet'). Austrian National Library, A.F. 93, in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The dedicatory shamseh of a Khamsa of 1500.
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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. Undated; Internet Archive copy of 30 March 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. A shamseh, a sarlowh and the ruled borders of a page dated c. 1400.
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Illuminated sarlawh of Sharaf-nama (Iskandar-nama), from a manuscript of the Khamsa by Nizami. Harvard Art Museums, 9.2015.243. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. An illuminated sarlowh of 1489.
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Making a Royal Manuscript. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, educator resources. Undated; Internet Archive copy of 5 March 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The kitabkhana, the illuminator's work and burnishing.
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A Note on Persian Miniature Painting: Materials and Techniques. British Institute of Persian Studies. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. Gold leaf, shell gold and the ruled border.
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BOOKBINDING (article 1). Duncan Haldane, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1989; Internet Archive copy of 27 August 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The part played by illuminators in lacquer bindings.
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ART IN IRAN x.2 Qajar Painting. Basil William Robinson, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1986; Internet Archive copy of 21 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Mirza Baba's illumination of Fath-Ali Shah's poems.
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The Art of Bookbinding in Fifteenth-Century Khorasan. Gholamreza Amirkhani, translated by Esmail Yazdanpour, Lingua Franca, issue 9. Published 2023. Accessed 27 September 2026. The scribe, illuminator and binder of a Yazd manuscript of 1477.
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The Studio of Behnaz Karjoo, an Iranian-American Master of the Islamic Art of Illumination. Beeta Baghoolizadeh, Ajam Media Collective. Published 5 July 2017. Accessed 27 September 2026. A present-day illuminator's training, certificate, materials and working time.
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Muraqqa': The Gold Shamseh. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The description, medium, size and year of the painting.
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Mi'raj (product page for the painting by Kamal al-Din Ghotb). VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The subject and gold clouds of the painting.
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Kamal al-Din Ghotb. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The painter's training, years of practice and medium.
Checked 27 September 2026. If something here is out of date, write to us and we will correct it.
