Tile representing Bahram Gur and Azadeh

This square tile comes from the decoration of the QubadabadPalace, the summer residence of the Seljuk Sultan of Anatolia ‘Alatiraz (armbands) on the sleeves. He wears a Turkish al-Din Kay Qubad (r. 1220-1236). The figurative subject stands out from the turquoise ground which is decorated with a foliage design of blue stems. The Sasanian King, Bahram Gur, is represented seated on his throne, dressed in a long red tunic which is decorated with reserved vegetal motifs and wearing sharbush on his head. Drawing his bow, he is about to shoot an arrow. Behind him, wearing a beige tunic with flaring sleeves and a crown, stands his favourite, Azadeh, holding a harp. The scene alludes to an episode taken from the Book of Kings (Shahname), an Iranian national epic written around the year 1000 by the poet Firdausi (940-1020), in which the king, at the request of his capricious companion seeks with his arrows to transform a male gazelle into a female and a female to a male and then to pierce a third through the ear and hoof with a single arrow. The story of Bahram Gur and Azadeh was reworked in the second half of the twelfth century by the poet Nizami in his Khamse[1].

The form of the tile suggests that it probably came from a border which framed a panel of hexagonal, cruciform and star-shaped tiles in an arrangement then current in Anatolian building. Excavations of the ruins of the Sultan’s palace at Konya have unearthed tiles produced in the same technique[2]. This technique, called haftrang (‘seven colours’ in Persian), which originated in China (during the Song dynasty, tenth century), was adopted in Seljuk Iran circa 1170[3] and was developed with the Mongol invasions of Iran from 1220[4].  It remained a luxury commodity in Iran and in Anatolia. The piece was fired twice. The first firing at 900-950°C600°C) and protected from direct flames fixed the more delicate colours (pink and gold accents). This highly skilled technique of decoration called ‘petit feu’ was rediscovered in Europe in the eighteenth century. fixed the resistant colours – blue, green and brown, (and here turquoise) on an opaque glaze. The second firing at a lower temperature (less than

Anatolian tiles are of a lesser quality than their rare Iranian counterparts; they were probably executed by local craftsmen. The style adopted for the human representations is similar to that found on Seljuk Iranian objects[5]: with their round oval faces[6], fine features and elongated eyes. The Qubadabad Palace has revealed similar stucco decorations with the same oval faces.

Allusions to episodes in the Shahname are common in Islamic art and this type of piece is of particular interest: it mirrors, to an extent, the art of book illustration of which there are very few examples[7]. The episode of Bahram Gur and Azadeh, first employed in Sasanian Iran (224-651) in the decorative arts[8]and architectural decoration[9], frequently appears in Islamic art. It recurs on Iranian haftrang artefacts[10]. It also crossed the borders of Iran: the famous ‘Blacas’ ewer[11] in copper alloy produced in Ayyubid Jezireh (Mossul) bears a reference to the same episode on its body. It also appears in Iranian book illustration which reached its height in the Ilkhanid period (1256-1353) and was widely developed under the successors of the Mongol dynasty[12]. The popularity of this episode of epic Iranian literature is probably explained by the fact that it accords perfectly to the theme of princely pleasures, one of the favourite subjects of Islamic art.

[2] Collection of fifteen fragmented tiles, first half of the 13th Madrasa Museum, inv. 602, 603, 711, 600, 650, 993, 648, 714, 611, 604, 784, 785, 610, 719, 720). century, Konya, the Karatay

[3] Abu’l Qasim, of Kashan, author of a famous treatise on the art of ceramics in 1301, refers to it.

[4] In Ilkhanid Iran, the colour range and motifs change, the production is termed lajvardina.

[5] Cup with equestrian hunter and falcon, Iran, beginning of the C13th, Paris, musée du Louvre, MAO 440.

[6] The round face is often compared in Iranian poetry to the full moon (‘the moon of the fourteenth night’).

[7] The death of the father of Warqa, Warqa and Gulshah by Ayyuqi, illustrator Abd al-Mumin al-Khuwayi, Konya, Turkey around 1250, Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi.

[8] Silver dish representing Bahram Gur and Azadeh, Iran, C7th, St Petersburg, Hermitage Museum.

[9] Stucco panel representing Bahram Gur and Azadeh from the palace of Shal Tarkham Ishqabad, Iran.

[10] Bowl, Iran, end of the C12th – beginning of the C13th, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 57-36-14. 

[11] ‘Blacas’ Ewer, signed Shuja’ ibn Mana al-Mawsilî, Mossul, 1232, London, British Museum, inv. 1866 12-29 61.

[12]  Bahram Gur and Azadeh, Shahname, on red ground, Shiraz, Iran, 1330s, written by the scribe Husayn ibn ‘Ali al-Husayn al-Bakhmani, Istanbul, Library of Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi.