Garrett Zafarnama
Each patron had different personal tastes and goals for their version of the Zafarnama, which influenced the choices of illustrations and design executed by the artists of their choosing.
[3] The text was written using the notes taken by royal scribes and secretaries of Timur, suggesting that the history of the book was based on a careful and desired selection of facts.
Sharif al-Din Ali’ Yazdi, also known by his pen name Sharaf, was a 15th century scholar who authored several works in the arts and sciences, including mathematics, astronomy, enigma, literature such as poetry, and history, the Zafarnama being his most famous(539).
[4] The Zafarnama of Sultan Husayn includes six double page illustrations that correspond with the text, equating to twelve miniatures (Sims, 180-1).
The illustrations are brightly colored and display original compositions which reveal a depth of emotion and “psychological reality which relates figures to one another” (Sims, 281).
Umar Shaykh was the great grandfather of Sultan-Husayn, the patron, and by including him in the illustrations as a military hero, he connects himself more closely with the prowess of Timur (Sims, 283-4).
[2] The next image, “Timur's army attacks the survivors of the town of Nerges, in Georgia, in the spring of 798/1396”, is the first depiction of this specific event in Persian painting (Natif, 217).
[1] The painting shows the Timurids being lowered in baskets down the cliff face so that they can attack the Georgians that hide in caves carved into the rock.
The composition of this scene is more free and flowing than previous images, with a rhythm created through the organic forms of the mounted soldiers and the curves of the rock face (Natif, 218).
[1] One explanation for this freeness of composition is that there were very few descriptive elements in the text, so the artist had free rein to depict the scene how he wished (Sims, 261).
One interesting feature is that the location of the painting is placed in the middle of a poetic phrase which describes the completed mosque, although the image shows the construction of the building (Natif, 218).
[1] The word jihad is mentioned several times in the text associated with this picture, and the illustration posits the Muslim king as someone who not only fights to spread the influence of his power, but also for religious reasons.
[2] It is known that "The Night Attack on Ankatura," "The Rout of the Georgians," and "The Construction of the Great Mosque of Samarqand” do not have any precedents, although they were used as inspiration for future versions of the Zafarnama (Sims, 286).
Scholars Lentz and Lowry believe that Yazdi’s Zafarnama was also an important tool of patronage, that would continue to spread the ideology and legitimacy of the Timurids after their fall (Natif, 222).
Some believe that the paintings were created around the conquest of Herat in 873, but it is unlikely that an inexperienced artist between the ages of thirteen and twenty-three, as Bihzad would have been, would be given such an important commission (Natif, 222).
