Tadhhīb (illumination)

Tadhhīb (zar-neɡārī), the art of decorating manuscripts and books by gold.
Tadhhīb literally means “to decorate with gold”,¹ “to gild,” and “to brocade with gold”,² and derives from the root dh-h-b.³ Dhahab (pl. al-adhhāb and al-dhahūb) means gold or a piece of gold.⁴ Tadhhīb also denotes the art of decorating manuscripts with gold and various pigments.⁵ That which has been gilded or covered with gold is called mudhahhab,⁶ and a practitioner of gilding or decorating is called a mudhahheb.⁷ Furthermore, decorated manuscript refers to ordered ornamental patterns executed with gold wash (āb-e zar) and black outlines, in which different shades of gold may be employed. This chromatic range results from combining pure gold with measured quantities of silver and copper. In early manuscript decoration, no color other than gold was used in illumination. The application of polychrome decoration was termed tarṣīʿ (inlay or polychrome ornamentation), and the resulting design was called muraṣṣaʿ (inlaid or polychrome ornamented).⁸ It is also possible that part of the applied gold is burnished and lustrous while another part remains matt; technically, these are termed khām va pukhta (unburnished and burnished gold).⁹ Today, however, all forms of this art are generally called tadhhīb or zar-neɡārī, referring to any artistic practice in which gold is applied to writing or pictorial composition.¹⁰

In early treatises, tadhhīb was often regarded as a subcategory of painting, and decorators (mudhahhbes) were counted among painters. Thus, in the ʿālam-ārā-ye ‛abbāsī*, in the section devoted to painters, it is noted that decorators are those who gild and adorn the pages of time.¹¹ In the past, brushes (qalam) were divided into two types: vegetal and animal. The vegetal type was used for writing and calligraphy, while the animal one—namely the brush—was used for ornamentation and pattern-making.¹² The first stage of preparation for illustration was called “binding or preparing the brush” (qalam-bastan). Ṣādeq Beyg Afshār recommended the squirrel-tail brush as the best, through this verse: “The brush must be made from squirrel-tail hair / but only the hair that responds well to warmth.”¹³ In Islamic artistic practice, craftsmen generally made brushes from sable hair and squirrel tails, and occasionally from other animals such as the hair along a cat’s spine or mouse hair.¹⁴ Among the principal tools¹⁵ of the art of tadhhīb are certain paper,¹⁶ zar-ḥall¹⁷ (shell gold), muhre¹⁸ (burnishing tool), ink,¹⁹ and other pigments such as lapis lazuli²⁰ (lājevard), cinnabar²¹ (shangarf, a transparent velvety red), verdigris²² (zangār), red lead²³ (suranj), and white lead²⁴ (sefidāb). The methods for preparing these materials are described in the treatises of earlier illuminators.²⁵ Today, some artists continue to follow the traditional techniques, while others employ modern industrial tools and pigments.

In the qānūn al-ṣuwar [the law of images], the principles of painting and various styles—strap-work (eslīmī), Chinese-inspired stylized floral motifs (khatāʾī), cloud bands (abr), foreign (farangī), and Roman knot (band-e rūmī)—are described.²⁶ The three principal motifs in tadhhīb are 1) eslīmī, a design in which the forms of trees and the twisting of branches are represented, a term that emerged after the fifteenth/ninth century, particularly in the Safavid period, though its visual antecedents can be traced to pre-Islamic Iranian architecture;²⁷ 2) khatāʾī, a motif of eastern origin, especially associated with China, which from the thirteenth/seventh century became one of the standard ornamental elements in Iranian art and gradually evolved through the work of Iranian artists;²⁸ and 3) the Roman knot (gere-e rūmī) or Chinese knot, which in the terminology of decorators refers to two or more interlaced bands of the ruling table (jadval) intertwined and knotted together, knotwork being a fundamental design principle among decorators and painters characterized by interlacing, knot-like twists.²⁹ These terms are also attested in sixteenth/tenth-century literary texts with the same meanings.³⁰

The history of tadhhīb and book decoration dates back to the centuries preceding the advent of Islam. The oldest surviving samples of pre-Islamic Iranian manuscripts are probably the gilded and illustrated Manichaean fragments discovered in the region of Tūrfān.³¹ Some of these pieces date to the 6th/1st and 7th/1st centuries.³² According to Ebn Nadīm, the first person in the early Islamic period to write portions of the Quran in gold was Khāled b. Abū al-Hayyāj, a scribe and calligrapher.³³ In Islamic traditions also is reported that the first person to undertake the decoration of the Quran was Imam Ali. According to them, he decorated the divisions of the Quran with pen-drawn leaves known among painters as eslīmī motifs.³⁴ Among the earliest Quranic decorators were Yaqṭīnī, Ebrāhīm Ṣaghīr, Abū Mūsā b. ‛Ammār, Ebn Muhammad Saqaṭī and his son, and Abū ‛Abdallāh Khuzaymī and his sons.³⁵ After calligraphers, decorators held precedence over other artists and craftsmen, a status owed to the meticulous and refined decoration of Qurans by decorators from the earliest centuries of Islam.³⁶

Due to the fragility of manuscripts, only a relatively small number of Qurans from the earliest centuries of Islam have survived. The oldest gilded books are the Qurans belong to the 2nd–4th/8th–10th centuries. The motifs employed in these works were indebted to Sasanian stone-carving ornament.³⁷ The use of decoration within Quranic manuscripts was generally limited to the sūra headings, and occasionally to verse-end markers as well as the signs for khams  (five) and ‛ashr (ten) divisions.³⁸ Surviving works from the 1st/7th to the late 4th/10th century lack the names of both the decorator and the place of production. Among the manuscripts tentatively attributed to Isfahan from this period is the codex of Keshvād b. Amlās*, endowed in 327/939 in Isfahan.³⁹ The earliest Quranic manuscript bearing the names of both the scribe and the decorator is a gilded copy dated 383/993 in Isfahan; part of this manuscript is preserved in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul, and a folio is held in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art in London (KFQ90).⁴⁰ In the works of this period, the principal pigments, in order of frequency, were gold, cinnabar, lapis lazuli, and verdigris. Geometric motifs and interlace patterns dominated, while other designs included large-scale eslīmī scrolls. The turanj medallion attached to the sūra heading and the lapis-lazuli ruling frame surrounding the main panels are among the defining features of this period.

From the 5th–6th/11th–12th centuries onward, with the rise of the Saljuqs* (r. 429–552/1038–1157)⁴¹ in Isfahan, the names of both the scribe and the decorator appear more frequently in manuscript colophons, although the exact place of production is not always specified. Notable changes also occurred in manuscript production, book formats, and decorative programs.⁴² Among the surviving decorated samples is the Quran no. 23 in the library of Āstān-e Quds Raḍavī.⁴³ This manuscript is undated, but it bears the name of its endower, Maleke Turkān Khātūn (d. 487/1094),⁴⁴ the wife of Malekshāh Saljuq (d. 485/1092).⁴⁵ Another Quranic manuscript, copied by Tāj al-Dīn Rāvandī in 586/1190–91 and decorated by Najm al-Dīn Rāvandī in 585/1189–90, is preserved in the same library under no. 2261.⁴⁶ Najm al-Dīn Muhammad b. Ali b. Sulaymān b. Muhammad Rāvandī, the author of rāḥat al-ṣudūr, states in his autobiographical remarks that he studied in Isfahan under his maternal uncle, Tāj al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Muhammad b. Ali Rāvandī, acquiring knowledge and mastering the arts of calligraphy, Quranic transcription, and decoration.⁴⁷ He resided in Isfahan until the fall of the Saljuqs of Iraq ⁴⁸(r. 511–595/1118–1199).⁴⁹ During this period, in addition to earlier decorative features, the decoration of the opening bifolio—known as the epigraph (sarlawḥ) pages⁵⁰—became standard practice. These double pages, placed before the beginning of the text, were fully gilded and framed with geometric designs. The use of cross-hatching and dotted ornamentation in the grounds of the text and motifs is also observed. Gold was the principal color, and geometric interlace constituted the dominant decorative pattern.

In the first half of the 8th/14th century, Isfahan lay within the region of Iraq of ‛Ajam* (Persian Iraq) and was under the rule of the Chobanids/Chupanids, who, after gaining independence, became known as the Ilkhanids or the Jalayirids⁵¹ (r. 740–813/1339–1410).⁵² At the same time, the Injuids (r. 703–758/1303–1357)⁵³ ruled Fars and claimed authority over Isfahan.⁵⁴ A copy of me‛yār-e jamālī, dated 741/1340–41 and preserved in the Süleymaniye Library in Turkey (no. 2768), is probably attributable to Isfahan. In terms of color palette, it resembles the preceding period. Large-scale eslīmī scrolls serve as the principal motif, accompanied by geometric interlace in the overall design. Scalloped ornaments were also employed around the frames of the shamsa medallions and inscriptions. These features bring it stylistically closer to the decoration of Injuids manuscripts. In the second half of the 8th/14th century, Isfahan was governed by Shah Maḥmūd Muẓaffarī (r. 737–776/1337–1374), the brother of Shah Shujā‛, under the authority of the Muzaffarids.⁵⁵ Manuscripts produced under the Muzaffarids court (r. 713–795/1313–1393)⁵⁶ follow a unified style regardless of their precise place of production. Although the colophons of many copies do not specify the place of writing, they were probably not all produced in a single location and instead reflect the broader Muzaffarids dominions. The placement and function of frames remained similar to the previous period. Lapis lazuli became the principal color, while delicate khaṭāʾī floral motifs dominated the decoration. From this period—and slightly earlier—the widespread use of the inscribed epigraph⁵⁷ began, consisting of a rectangular inscription panel (bazūband) and a crown-like upper element (tāj)⁵⁸ at the beginning of each section of a book. Despite codicological evidence, the decoration of 8th/14th-century Isfahan may be regarded as largely following the contemporary Shiraz style.

According to manuscripts produced in Isfahan between 810 and 850/1407–1446, and despite the political struggles among the Timurid dynasts, Isfahan in the field of manuscript decoration continued to follow the style of the Shiraz libraries. From 850/1446 onward, with the beginning of the rule of Muhammad b. Bāysanghur Timurid, there exist manuscripts commissioned by him that feature decoration in the Herat school style.⁵⁹ The manuscript numbered 3048 in the Hagia Sophia Library was transcribed in 846/1442–43 in Isfahan. The characteristics of illumination from this period in this region represent a continuation of the Muzaffarid style of decoration, with the differences being the increased complexity of the khaṭāʾī motifs and the addition of an almond-shaped (bādāmī) turanj frame within the compositions. Another manuscript, preserved under no. 3288 at the Hagia Sophia Library, is dated 861/1456–57 and was transcribed in “Bāgh-e Shahrz of Isfahan.” This manuscript bears the name of Sulṭān Muhammad Bahādur Khān, and its decoration style follows the Herat school. The hallmarks of this manuscript’s decoration are eslīmī scrolls as the primary motif, lapis lazuli as the principal color, and intricate interlace patterns or knot (gere) as well as rounded frame designs in the Herat manner.

The Safavid kings (r. 905–1135/1500–1722)⁶⁰ paid particular attention to Isfahan. The result of this, especially from Shah ‛Abbās I onward and the establishment of Isfahan as the capital in 1006/1597–98,⁶¹ is the large number of manuscripts that have survived to the present day. Furthermore, with the expansion of relations with the West, traces of the culture and art of this period and the subsequent era are evident in European travel accounts. The single-volume Quran no. Qur17 dated 1074/1663–64, the single-volume Quran, no. Qur301, dated 1101/1689–90 preserved in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art,⁶² the dīvān of Ṣāʾeb, no. 2193 at the Gulestān Palace, dated to the 11th/17th century,⁶³ and the shāhnāme dated 1012/1603–4, probably produced in Isfahan during the reign of Shah ‛Abbās I, preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, no. S. Persan 490,⁶⁴ as well as the dīvān of ṣeydī dated to the 11th/17th century, transcribed in Dār al-Salṭana (the royal capital) of Isfahan, preserved in the Āstān-e Quds Raḍavī library, no. 6629,⁶⁵ are among the manuscripts of this period. The defining features of decoration in Isfahan manuscripts from the Safavid period are: complex khaṭāʾī motifs with a high diversity of flowers as the primary ornament; the use of various types of eslīmī scrolls with diverse decorations; the employment of different shades of gold and the creation of ornaments using gold; the use of secondary mixed colors such as pink, purple, and light blue alongside the earlier pigments; and the density, dynamism, and variety in the design of frames and motifs in comparison with preceding periods, as well as the decoration and gilding between the lines.

In the treatises and biographical anthologies surviving from the Safavid period, the names of artists are recorded. Dūst Muhammad, in the preface  of the Bahrām Mīrzā Album muraqqa‛, speaks of artists in such a manner that it appears all of them were skilled in all the refined arts, including decoration and painting.⁶⁶ Another indication is that painters were probably not discussed specifically as decorators, and the term “painters” (naqqāshān) was intended to encompass all artists, including illuminators (mudhahhebs), table-makers (jadval-keshān), and illustrators (muṣavverān).⁶⁷ Such is the case with Mullā Muẓaffar Ali, whose work as an illuminator and background decorator (afshāngar) is mentioned in gulestān-e hunar.⁶⁸ Among these names, there are many artists who were active during the time of the Safavid kings in Tabriz, Qazvin, Mashhad, and other major cities. However, after the establishment of Isfahan as the capital and from the reign of Shah ‛Abbās I onward, no artist who specifically worked as a decorator in the Dār al-Salṭana of Isfahan is found in the biographical anthologies. Munshī Qumī mentions only Mīr Yaḥyā the decorator in Isfahan during the time of Shah ‛Abbās I. Mīr Yaḥyā, a sayyed from Tabriz and an unparalleled decorator, was active in the Dār al-Salṭana of Isfahan during the lifetime of Munshī Qumī (d. 1015/1606–7).⁶⁹

During the Qajar period (r. 1210–1344/1795–1925),⁷⁰ the characteristics of Safavid Isfahan illumination became more pronounced, with increased density of motifs and greater chromatic variety in the designs. The crown (tāj) of the epigraph pages was designed to be considerably taller. The crown and epigraph pages, featuring a khaṭāʾī border against a colorless ground at the beginning of manuscript texts, as well as gilding and khaṭāʾī ornamentation between the lines, were used more frequently in this period compared to other frame types. Warm colors such as cinnabar (shangarf) and red lead (suranj) were used more extensively and also served as background colors. Furthermore, attention to floral details and design decreased in comparison to earlier periods. The Leylī va Majnūn manuscript no. 4926 in the Āstān-e Quds Raḍavī library, dated 1232/1816–17 and produced in the Dār al-Salṭana of Isfahan;⁷¹ the Quran transcribed by ‛Abdullāh Renānī, dated 1233/1817–18, preserved in the Gulestān Palace library;⁷² and the Quran transcribed by Mīrzā Ali Reza Partuv-e Eṣfahānī*, dated 1277/1860–61, preserved in the Gulestān Palace,⁷³ are among the works produced in Isfahan during this period.

Among the artists of Isfahan in the 13th/19th and 14th/20th centuries was ‛Abdul-Vahhāb, the decorator of the Quran no. 1277 in the Gulestān Palace.⁷⁴ Sayyed Abū al-Qāsem, Mīrzā Muhammad Taqī, Āqā Muhammad Javād,⁷⁵ Āqā Muhammad Ebrāhīm (d. 1333/1914–15) and his sons, Mīrzā ‛Abdul-Karīm known as Mīrzā Karīm the painter, and Nejāt Ali Ne‛matullāhī were among other illuminators of Isfahan.⁷⁶ Also mentioned is Mīrzā Āqā Emāmī* (d. 1334./1955–56), who was familiar with the arts of painting, decoration, miniature painting (negārgarī), and woodcarving. Some of his students were his son Āqā Fakhr al-Dīn, Mīrzā Hādī Tajvīdī, Hussein Behzād, and Āqā Muhammad Ali the illuminator.⁷⁷ Hussein Behzād (d. 1347/1968–69) was originally from Isfahan but was active in Tehran.

/Pegah Ebrahimi/

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1. Jawharī, vol. 1 p. 129; Ebn Manẓūr, vol. 1, p. 395; Hussein Yūsuf Mūsā and Ṣa‛īdī, vol. 2, p. 1216.[↩]
2. Ebn-e Ma‛rūf, vol. 1, part 3, p. 296.[↩]
3. Ebn Manẓūr, vol. 1, p. 395; Hussein Yūsuf Mūsā and Ṣa‛īdī, vol. 2, p. 1216; Ma‛lūf, p. 515.[↩]
4. Khalīl b. Aḥmad, vol. 4, p. 40; Jawharī, vol. 1, p. 129; Sāḥeb b. ‛Ubbād, vol. 3, p. 469; Madanī, vol. 2, p. 40.[↩]
5. Ma‛lūf, p. 515.[↩]
6. Khalīl b. Aḥmad, vol. 4, p. 40; Jawharī, vol. 1, p. 129; Sāḥeb b. ‛Ubbād, vol. 3, p. 470.[↩]
7. Jawharī, vol. 1, p. 129.[↩]
8. Māyel Heravī, 2018/1397, vol. 2, p. 39.[↩]
9. Bayānī, p. 23.[↩]
10. farhang-e buzurg-e sukhan, vol. 5, p. 3852.[↩]
11. Eskandar Munshī, vol. 1, part 2, p. 174.[↩]
12. Munshī Qumī, p. 257.[↩]
13. Ṣādeq Beyg Afshār, p. 420.[↩]
14. Māyel Heravī, 2018/1397, vol. 2, p. 243.[↩]
15. For information on the tools of the art of manuscript illumination, see: Déroche, pp. 124-198; for traditional methods of pigment making, see: Jukār, pp. 15-95.[↩]
16. For further information on this term, see: Māyel Heravī, 2018/1397, vol. 2, p. 251; idem, 2024/1403, pp. 236-246; Déroche, pp. 53-70.[↩]
17. See: Māyel Heravī, 2018/1397, vol. 2, p. 149.[↩]
18. See: ibid., vol. 2, p. 359.[↩]
19. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 330.[↩]
20. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 305-307.[↩]
21. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 177-180.[↩]
22. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 153.[↩]
23. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 161.[↩]
24. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 163.[↩]
25. For various treatises, see: ibid., vol. 1, pp. 67-80; Ṣādeq Beyg Afshār, pp. 415-429; Ḥeydarī, pp. 77-83.[↩]
26. Ṣādeq Beyg Afshār, p. 421.[↩]
27. Āzhand, pp. 45-47.[↩]
28. Ibid., pp. 97-120.[↩]
29. Māyel Heravī, 2018/1397, vol. 2, p. 302.[↩]
30. See: ‛Abdī Shīrāzī, pp. 88-108; Jahāngoshā-ye Khāqān, p. 292.[↩]
31. Located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.[↩]
32. Porter, p. 24.[↩]
33. Ebn Nadīm, p. 11. “In the Mosque of the Prophet, he wrote from Sūrat al-Shams wa ḍuḥāhā to the end of the Quran in gold.”[↩]
34. Dūst Muhammad Haeravī, p. 324; Munshī Qumī, pp. 257-259.[↩]
35. Ebn Nadīm, p. 15.[↩]
36. Zakī Muhammad Hasan, p. 72.[↩]
37. Ettinghausen, p. 2236.[↩]
38. For examples of works, see: sabk-e ‛abbāsī, pp. 62-65.[↩]
39. For an image of the manuscript, see: shāh-kārhā-ye hunarī dar Āstān-e Quds-e Raḍavī, vol. 1, p. 59.[↩]
40. Richard, p. 30.[↩]
41. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 2, part 1, p. 1857.[↩]
42. Ettinghausen, p. 2240.[↩]
43. For images of the manuscript, see: shāh-kārhā-ye hunarī dar Āstān-e Quds-e Raḍavī, vol. 1, pp. 108-111.[↩]
44. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 1, p. 628.[↩]
45. Ibid., vol. 2, part 2, p. 2849.[↩]
46. For images of the manuscript, see: shāh-kārhā-ye hunarī dar Āstān-e Quds-e Raḍavī, vol. 1, p. 128.[↩]
47. Rāvandī, part 2, pp. 38-40.[↩]
48. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 1, p. 1312.[↩]
49. shāh-kārhā-ye hunarī dar Āstān-e Quds-e Raḍavī, vol. 1, p. 128.[↩]
50. See: Bayānī, p. 27.[↩]
51. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 1, p. 205.[↩]
52. Hājī Khalīfe, p. 131.[↩]
53. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 1, p. 348.[↩]
54. For the historical events of this period, see: Zarkūb Shīrāzī, 2010/1389.[↩]
55. Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, vol. 1, part 2, p. 312; for further information on the governmental events of the Muẓaffarids, see: Kutubī, 1985/1364.[↩]
56. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 1, p. 225.[↩]
57. For further information, see: Ṣafarī Āq Qal‛e, pp. 298-316.[↩]
58. For further information, see: ibid.[↩]
59. For the history of Isfahan in the Timurid period, see: Humāyī, 2016/1395, pp. 389-410.[↩]
60. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 2, part 1, p. 1576.[↩]
61. Eskandar Munshī, vol. 2, p. 372.[↩]
62. kamāl-e ārāstegī, pp. 134, 138.[↩]
63. Semsār, p. 214.[↩]
64. BnF Archives et manuscrits, 2026.[↩]
65. Nāṣerī Mehr, p. 320.[↩]
66. Dūst Muhammad Haeravī, pp. 315-336.[↩]
67. Eskandar Munshī, vol. 1, p. 128.[↩]
68. Munshī Qumī, p. 274; Humāyī, 1996/1375, p. 290.[↩]
69. Munshī Qumī, p. 287; Humāyī, 1996/1375, p. 293.[↩]
70. dāyerat al-ma‛āref-e fārsī, vol. 2, part 2, p. 1984.[↩]
71. Nāṣerī Mehr, p. 266.[↩]
72. Semsār, p. 73.[↩]
73. Ibid., p. 92.[↩]
74. Humāyī, 1996/1375, p. 317.[↩]
75. Ibid., pp. 318-319.[↩]
76. Ibid., p. 334.[↩]
77. Ibid., pp. 320-324.[↩]