Overview

Transforming our understanding of Persian art, this impressive interdisciplinary book decodes some of the world's most exquisite medieval paintings. It reveals the hidden meaning behind enigmatic figures and scenes that have puzzled modern scholars, focusing on five 'miniature' paintings. Chad Kia shows how the cryptic elements in these works of art from Timurid Persia conveyed the mystical teachings of Sufi poets like Rumi, Attar and Jami, and heralded one of the most significant events in the history of Islam: the takeover by the Safavids in 1501 and the conversion of Iran to Shiism.

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9781474450393

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Reviews

Chad Kia convincingly demonstrates the poetic richness and cultural depth of the late fifteenth-century paintings produced in the spiritually imbued intellectual and artistic atmosphere of the Herat elite. Written in rich language and with intellectual sharpness, this book is a pleasure to read.'-- ""Professor Rachel Milstein, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem"" The book is highly recommended for those interested Timurid-era Sufism, literature, and manuscript painting, as well as those interested in questions of visual interpretation--especially in illustrative contexts--more generally.--Austin O'Malley, University of Arizona ""Shii Studies Review 7 (2023)"" Written in a scholarly but highly readable style, Kia's volume not only makes a welcome contribution to the fields of Islamic art in general and Persian painting in particular but it boasts the added benefit of appealing to a non-specialist audience.--Cleo Cantone ""Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3-4"" While grounded in the field of art history, Kia employs a cross-disciplinary perspective in Art, Allegory and the Rise of Shiism in Iran, showing how religion, culture, politics, and society overlap, intertwine, complement, and contradict one another. Consequently, this original and thought-provoking book will be indispensable for scholars of early modern cultural studies and--equally significantly--to those studying the long duree trajectory of Iranian history.--Mary Yoshinari ""Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Volume 21, Number 1""

"Chad Kia convincingly demonstrates the poetic richness and cultural depth of the late fifteenth-century paintings produced in the spiritually imbued intellectual and artistic atmosphere of the Herat elite. Written in rich language and with intellectual sharpness, this book is a pleasure to read.'-- ""Professor Rachel Milstein, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem"" The book is highly recommended for those interested Timurid-era Sufism, literature, and manuscript painting, as well as those interested in questions of visual interpretation--especially in illustrative contexts--more generally.--Austin O'Malley, University of Arizona ""Shii Studies Review 7 (2023)"" Written in a scholarly but highly readable style, Kia's volume not only makes a welcome contribution to the fields of Islamic art in general and Persian painting in particular but it boasts the added benefit of appealing to a non-specialist audience.--Cleo Cantone ""Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3-4"" While grounded in the field of art history, Kia employs a cross-disciplinary perspective in Art, Allegory and the Rise of Shiism in Iran, showing how religion, culture, politics, and society overlap, intertwine, complement, and contradict one another. Consequently, this original and thought-provoking book will be indispensable for scholars of early modern cultural studies and--equally significantly--to those studying the long duree trajectory of Iranian history.--Mary Yoshinari ""Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Volume 21, Number 1"""

Author Information

Chad Kia has been a Smithsonian Fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art in Washington DC, and has taught Persian and Arabic literatures and Islamic art and intellectual history at Harvard University and Brown University.

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