In 1556 Prince Sultan Ibrahim Mirza commissioned a copy of the great Persian literary classic the Haft awrang (Seven Thrones) of Abdul-Rahman Jami. For the next nine years, five court calligraphers worked on the transcription of the poetic text, and then another group of gifted artists illuminated and decorated it. The magnificent volume, now housed in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and known as the Freer Jami, is renowned as one of the most sumptuous works of the Safavid period and a masterpiece of Islamic art. Now a new book is available that provides the first full account of its poetic and artistic history -- as well as reproductions of many of its beautiful folios.Marianna Shreve Simpson explores the production, purpose, and meaning of the Haft awrang, providing historical documentation about its princely patron and artists and analyzing its contents. She summarizes the seven poems and examines the individual illustrations, focusing in particular on their iconography, their interpretation of the poetic verses, and their relation to other known illustrations of the same text.

Her study also sheds light on a number of fascinating art historical issues. These include the kitabkhana (workshop) system and the practices of deluxe manuscript production in sixteenth-century Iran, the respective roles and relationships of those involved in the complicated enterprise of Safavid bookmaking, the intersection of art and literature in a culture that res.