illustrated khamsa of nizami, from turkman school, in the possession of the islamic art museum of kuala lumpur1.

in persian literature and persian painting, versifying and illustrating khamsa were common for centuries. after ferdowsi's “shahname”, khamsa of nizami is known to be the most popular poetry book in persian literature. the khamsa (quintet) is a collection of five narrative poems called:“makhzan al-asrar”, “khusraw and shirin”, “layla and majnun”, “haft peykar” and “iskandar nama” composed by nizami ganjavi in 6th century.khamsa nizami dated 904 a.h. accession no. 2012.25.5 keeps in “islamic art museum of kuala lumpur, malaysia”. this manuscript has sixty eight miniatures and five further double-page miniatures at the start of each book, followed by an illuminated heading with title in white tawqi' script in a gold-ground cartouche, binding with punched and gilt-stamped decoration consisting of chinoiserie cloud bands and interlacing vegetation, with doublures of cut-leather filigreework on blue and gold ground cartouches and cornerpieces,the text is written in a small and neat nasta'liq hand within four columns,typical of the period, whilst the doublures also display an intricate interlace of cut-leather filigree.and headings in gold tawqi. there is no evidence about the calligrapher, painter(s) and patron. one of the seals on the opening leaf is that of “abd al-rashid daylami” (1670),the nasta’liq calligrapher who was lived about a hundred years after manuscript had made, so he could sealed the book as the owner or as the royal librarian manager in mughal court of shah jahan.the place of origin is not noted too, but most probably it must be done in shiraz. this manuscript has been illustrated in turkman style, which was common in second half of ninth and beginning of tenth century in east, middle and south of iran. turkman painting came to fruition under the qara - qoyunlu and aq - qoyunlu rulers.there are some common features in turkman school which are presented in khamsa nizami 904 a.h. too: figures are of medium-large size, and mostly their limbs well coordinated; they are squat and sturdy with rather large heads and full round faces.the depictions of architecture are rather simple with little indication of depth. there are two method of rendering the ground (i) in a pale color with simple rocky horizon and stylized grass and plants, and (ii) in green, covered with large bushy masses of vegetation often picked out with yellow or a lighter green, and with no rocky horizon. expanse of lush, floriferous greenery or green on green.dynamic compositions combined with vibrate colours. except from some cases there is not much significant differences in manuscripts quality.bulky bodies and stylizism are significant characteristics of this manuscript.this study attempted to provide a better understanding of persian painting in turkmanan dynasty through studying khamsa 904 a .h. and introducing this book as a document in turkman style.the research method is descriptive-explanatory and in data collecting beside, the library method and online data bases, corpus study have been also used. based on achieved results from the reaserch, khamsa 904 a .h. probably is a royal manuscript.