Anvar-i Suhayli

Anvar-i Suhayli (“Lights of Canopus”) is a Persian “mirrors-for-princes” — a literary genre intended to educate leaders on principles of effective and ethical rule. It was composed in the late 15th century by the scholar Husayn Va‘iz Kashifi. His text was based on the Sanskrit Pancatantra (“Five Discourses”), originally written sometime between 200 BC and 300 CE and repeatedly translated over many centuries, becoming a major source of fable literature around the globe. The characters in Anvar-i Suhayli are humans, as well as animals with human virtues and vices. The Aga Khan Museum’s copy is among the most important manuscripts in Persian art history. It was commissioned not by a ruler, but by Sadiqi Beg (1533–1610), a Safavid court painter and royal librarian. Its 108 pictures are similar in style to Sadiqi Beg’s signed works, making it likely that he was also the manuscript’s illustrator.



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