Flowers and plants in Persian miniatures

A limited range of recognizable flowers, plants and trees occurs in Persian miniatures but stylised plants also abound.

Sir John Chardin, a French jeweller and traveller, was entranced by flowers he saw in Iran during his 17th century travels: ‘The flowers of Persia by the vivacity of their colours are generally handsomer than those of Europe, and those of India …..

Several of the flowers he mentions can be identified in miniatures or on book covers but oddly enough crown imperials are very rarely included in Persian miniatures although the day lily often is. Irises, usually long stemmed purple varieties, occur over and over again.

Some like those in vases in Khamseh of Nizami are carefully drawn but the quality of plant drawing varies considerably and at its worst the plant is only just recognisable as in the late 16th century Shahnameh.

This also applies to the hollyhock which is probably seen at its best in 15th-century miniatures. Rose bushes are a feature of miniatures from the 14th century onwards, the roses almost invariably being pink although some of the lovely miniatures in the Shah Shahnameh of Tahmasp (now in the United States) do include white and yellow roses.

This manuscript has a delightful miniature of Rodabeh’s women attendants picking roses while they are waiting to meet Zal’s pages. The British Library’s manuscript dated 1396 of which the landscape of trees is reproduced also has a scene of festivity in a garden where women are picking red roses from a bush in the background.

Indeterminate and almost unidentifiable plants fill out the background in many miniatures even in those which have a few carefully drawn specimens and this is particularly so of plants growing on the banks of the stream which is so often put in the foreground of a composition.

Peony plants with large flowers, narcissus, occasionally the vine and the violet can be identified particularly in manuscripts of very fine quality such as the superb copies of the Jahahnama mentioned above and the other exquisite paintings done for Baysunghur in Herat.

These include two copies of the fables of Kalila and Demna in the Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul (which are usually on exhibition there) and another in the Golestan Palace Library in Tehran.

Flowers used as decoration or for gifts sometimes figure in miniatures such as the irises in vases presented to Fareydoun or the narcissus in a vase presented an Iranian mythical king or even in bouquets.

An amusing and unusual instance of the latter occurs in one of the 15th-century manuscripts of the Khamseh of Nizami in the Topkapi Saray Museum Library in Istanbul. Shirin is standing on her balcony watching Khosrow and his courtiers riding towards her castle each holding a large bunch of daisies in his hand.

Trees, in addition to the ubiquitous cypress, most often seen in Persian miniature paintings are the plane, the poplar and the willow.

Flowering trees also occur widely and these vary, ranging from blossom which resembles variously, peach, apricot, pomegranate, prunus and Judas tree to those with very stylised flowers which cannot be identified.

The above is a lightly edited version of part of a book entitled, Plants and Gardens in Persian Mughal and Turkish Art, written by Norah Titley, published by British Library.