لیلی و مجنون
Layli and Majnun 

Nizami Ganjavi, author 

Recension of Maktabi Shirazi 

Karam ʻAli, scribe 

1838–39 CE, Qajar Empire (present-day Iran) 

Manuscript codex, illustrations, contemporary leather-backed gilt lacquered board binding 

SCRC 696 

This manuscript is an illustrated rendition of the Persian epic poem Layli and Majnun, a tragic tale of two lovers torn apart by disapproving families. Its brilliantly colored, detailed illustrations exemplify Qajar-era Persian painting, which combined Western-style portraiture with compositional approaches from earlier Islamic styles. In this illustration, Majnun hides among a flock of sheep and peers at Layli in her tent. By rendering all characters at roughly the same scale—regardless of their distance from the viewer—the artist approaches perspective diagrammatically. This gives equal weight to the two lovers’ points of view, and creates the sense that Majnun is lost in the crowd.

MeiLi Carling