Cleveland Museum of Art

Bahram Gur Visits the Princess of India in the Black Pavilion (recto): Illustration and Text, Persian Verses, from a manuscript of the Khamsa of Nizami, Haft Paykar [Seven Portraits]

Date: c. 1400–1410
Medium: opaque watercolor and ink on paper
Culture: Iran, possibly Tabriz or Shiraz, Timurid Period, early 15th century
Department: Islamic Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

The Khamsa, a suite of five poems written by Nizami in the 12th century, recounts the history and legends of pre-Islamic Iran with an emphasis on love rather than war. Here, in an early extant depiction of a favorite story, Shah Bahram Gur visits a princess in a black pavilion; this is one of seven paintings depicting the king visiting one of his seven wives, each in a different colored pavilion, on successive days of the week. The princess is shown telling a story after a day of lovemaking.

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