Khamsa of Nizami (Tabriz, 1481)

The Khamsa of Nizami (Tabriz, 1481) is a manuscript of the Khamsa of Nizami, mainly commissioned by the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Yaqub Beg in 1481, in the city of Tabriz. The manuscript was started significantly earlier in 1449–57 at the Timurid court of Herat, and changed hands several times throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, embodying various styles along this perigrination, until the final addition of eleven miniatures by the new Safavid ruler Shah Ismail in 1505. Most of the manuscript is now in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library in Istambul under the inventory code H.762, but a few more folios are detached and are now part of the Keir Collection in London.

In its final composition in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library, the manuscript is composed of 317 folios (H. 0.300 x W. 0.195). Two colophons on folios 148 and 316, indicate that it was calligraphed by 'Abd al-Rahîm ibn 'Abd al-Rahmân al-Khvârezmi al-Sulțânî al-Yaʻqûbî ("attached to Sultan Yaqub Beg"), and completed in the month of Muharram 886 AH (March 1481), in the dar sultaniyeh quarter of Tabriz. In addition, the manuscript has illuminations and 19 paintings. Three more paintings from the manuscript are known, which have been removed and are now in the Keir collection in London.