Skip Navigation

"Job Lying Under a Tree," Page from an Illustrated Manuscript of the Majma` al-tavarikh (Collection of Chronicles) of Hafiz Abru (d. 1430)

Arts of the Islamic World

MEDIUM Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
  • Place Made: Herat, Afghanistan
  • DATES ca. 1425
    DYNASTY Timurid
    PERIOD Timurid Period
    DIMENSIONS Sheet: 13 x 16 15/16 in. (33 x 43 cm) Image and Text: 9 1/4 x 13 3/8 in. (23.5 x 34 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 88.27
    CREDIT LINE Hagop Kevorkian Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION This folio belongs to a famous copy of the Majma` al-tavarikh (Collection of Chronicles), commissioned by Shahrukh in the 1420s in Herat and written by the Hafiz Abru (d. 1430), a historian and courtier who served both Timur and Shahrukh. The history represents one of the most significant methods used by the Timurids to legitimate their rule in Iran. Its text covers the general history of the world from Adam through the reign of Shahrukh and draws from Biblical, Islamic, Iranian, Chinese, and Mongol histories. The format follows the model of the Jami` al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) written by the Iranian Jewish doctor Rashid al-Din (d. 1318), who served under the Ilkhanids and set a new standard for strategic history writing in Iran. There may be as many as four extensively illustrated copies of this history, but two are known of for certain: a dispersed manuscript formerly in the collections of Emile Tabbagh and Parish Watson, and a dated copy (829 AH/1425 CE) in the Topkapi Sarayi Library in Istanbul (H.1653); pages of the c. 1425 manuscript, which was widely dispersed, can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Aga Khan Museum Collection, the Sackler Museum of the Harvard University Art Museums and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Two such pages were exhibited in the landmark exhibition of Islamic art of the Timurid period (r. 1370-1506), Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century in 1989, which took place at LACMA and the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. - L. Akbarnia (7/2/08)
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION "Job Lying Under a Tree," Page from an Illustrated Manuscript of the Majma` al-tavarikh (Collection of Chronicles) of Hafiz Abru (d. 1430), ca. 1425. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, Sheet: 13 x 16 15/16 in. (33 x 43 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Hagop Kevorkian Fund, 88.27 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 88.27_IMLS_SL2.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 88.27_IMLS_SL2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
    This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.