A Royal Banquet at Night
A Royal Banquet at Night
Fol. 43v from a manuscript of the Divan of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza (pen-named Jahi)
Iran, Qazvin, 1582–1583
Opaque watercolour, gold, and ink on paper
AKM282.43
In the verses illustrated here, the poet writes that his secret love was suddenly exposed at a courtly gathering by the exchange of a single amorous look. This illustration captures several such “plays of the glance” (nazir-bazi): between the seated prince and an elder, the younger and older men in the foreground, those seated in the landscape beyond the terrace’s red fence, and even the two jackals depicted in the mural above the prince’s head. The poem’s final verse states: “It is a prize to have reached his banquet after a thousand nights. / Jahi! Never remove your eyes from him.” The original illustration is worn; a time-lapse video of its digital restoration is on view in the “Restored” section of this exhibition.