Shop Amazon - Create an Amazon Baby Registry


Find the perfect fit with Amazon Prime. Try Before You Buy.


Illustrations from the manuscript of the Romance of Varqa and Gulshah, c1250.


Warqa wa Gulshah, Varqa u Gulshah, Varka ve Gülþah'ta, Varqa o Golšãh, Le Roman de "Varqe et Golsah."
Scenes from the only known illustrated manuscript of the poem, the Romance of Varqa and Gulshah, by Urwa b Huzam al-'Udhri, with paintings by Abd al Mu'min al Khuwayyi.

The early thirteenth-century manuscript of Varqa and Gulshah in the Topkapi Palace Library (Hazine 841) is the unique copy of the Persian poet Ayyuqi's 11th-century romantic poem about a pair of unfortunate lovers. The manuscript - generally held to be a product of early 13th-century Seljuk Anatolia - is also the earliest surviving example of an illustrated book containing a literary Persian text. Based on a story "told by Arabs," the poem was (re-)composed by Ayyuqi in the eastern Iranian world during the Ghaznavid period. The seventy-one paintings constitute a fascinating corpus of images which indicate a particularly rich realm of artistic process and audience expectation.

A summary of the story of Varqa and Gulshah

Click on the pictures for a larger image.

f.31/30b. Varqa speaks with the mother of Gulshah.



f.32/31a. Interview of the mother of Gulshah with her husband sitting on a throne.



f.33/32a. Farewell visit of Varqa to Gulshah, before his departure for Yemen; within a tent.



f.34/33a. Oath of fidelity of Varqa and of Gulshah



f.35/33b. Farewell of Varqa to Gulshah under a cypress.



f.36/34b. Varqa enters into the city of Yemen and Varqa speaking with the Vizier



f.37/35b. The exit of the armed Varqa from the walls of Yemen, flanked by two riders.



f.38/36b. The army of Varqa scatters that of Bahrain and of ‘Adan.



f.39/37b. Struggle of Warqah with a warrior of ‘Adan.



f.40/38b. Combat of Varqa with the army of Bahrain and of ‘Adan.



The artist's name 'Abd al-Mu'min b. Muhammad al-Naqqash al-Khuyi occurs as a witness to the endowment deed of the madrasa founded by the Seljuk amir Jalãl al-Din Karatay in 1253-54AD at Konya. The artist's signature is fol.58v of the Warqa wa Gulshãh manuscript. The nisbah al-Kliuyi shows that he was from Khuy, Azerbaijan. (Grube 1966 p .73; Melikian-Chirvani 1970 pp.79-80; Rogers 1986 p.50).
From the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.

Varqa wa Gulshah, page 1
Varqa wa Gulshah, page 2
Varqa wa Gulshah, page 3
Varqa wa Gulshah, page 5
Varqa wa Gulshah, page 6
Varqa wa Gulshah, page 7

Large Coloured Military Illustrations from the Romance of Varqa and Gulshah
Other Large Coloured Illustrations from the Romance of Varqa and Gulshah

Seljuk Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers




Free Web Hosting