The object that will be analyzed is the folio “Funeral Procession” from the Mantiq al-Tayr manuscript. This folio is part of a much larger story that is depicted in the manuscript with intricate paintings accompanying the story. The folio, “Funeral Procession” depicts a son grieving his father and how they are taking the father’s casket to the burial site. The folio is approximately 33 cm by 21.6 cm [i]. The painting only takes about a third of the space of the page, while the rest of the page is covered in speckled gold leaf [ii]. The simple detail of the gold background shows how this manuscript was regal and belonged to someone who was established and had access to money. There is also a thin solid gold border surrounding the painting that also shows the extravagance of the manuscript as a whole.
In the painting itself, there are only two small text boxes that tell the reader about the grieving son and the funeral procession. When looking at the characters, the bottom of the image shows the procession and the men carrying a colorful green coffin, while the son exclaims his grief to the Sufi. the top part of the painting shows men working on prepping the burial site. The burial site is lifted and seems to be well-constructed and decorated in a humble manner. I think this shows that the father and son came from a stable but not lavish background. Burials seemed to be given to all in the Islamic community, it was more of a matter of how lavish the ceremony and burial site was. The calligrapher uses these characters to show what the day-to-day life would be like for an individual under the Timurid empire. Another interesting detail in the painting is the tree that breaks the painting's border and covers some of the background [iii]. This is an interesting detail because the breaking of the painting border pulls the eyes toward the tree. In the tree, there are four birds and a snake climbing up it, believed to be one of the only connections to the rest of the story. Most of the paintings in the manuscript have little to no correlation to the overall story [iv].
There is little known about where it was created. All that is known is that it was created in Herat, which had been connected to modern-day Afghanistan, and ended up in Isfahan, Iran. Fortunately, there is more information on when it was created. The manuscript colophon was signed by Sultan Ali al-Mashhadi. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was dated to the first day of the fifth month of the second year of the last ten years preceding 900 [v]. This makes the manuscript's date add up to around April 25th, 1487, A.D. It is rare that there is so much information about the date of creation for an object of that time period. Also, the manuscript was not finished, and there is no explanation for why. There seems to be a few folios that were added around 1600 A.D., but there is not much about why this was done and if they were missing originally or excluded on purpose. The folios that were in the manuscript originally all seem to connect to the Timurid style, which makes sense since the Timurids were in power around the time of the manuscript's creation. There are rumors that this manuscript, or copies of this one, traveled around India. According to Yumiko Kamada, there is a painting in the Khalili collection that is practically identical to the “The Beggar and the King” folio [vi]. This is the only place that the manuscript might have gone outside of Herat. All that is known about the manuscript's production is that it was produced on polished paper. This seems reasonable because the manuscript is mostly paragraphs and pictures that are just paintings on some of the folios.
Every manuscript has a purpose and reasoning to why it was created. For the Mantiq al-Tayr, it is believed that it was created to be a visual version of the author's poem under the same name. The poem, which translates into The Conference of the Birds, tells the story of a flock of birds traveling around the Middle East to seek their new king “the simorgh” [vii]. Their journey is long and full of challenges but the author, Farid Un-Din Attar, uses each bird to break down a different struggle that humans could experience. Looking at the story, there are many unjointed ideas that are hard to connect, but once the perspective changes into how the journey is experienced by the birds and their different personalities, the story falls into place. On the outer layers, this poem seems to be surface level and is just a mystically story about a group discovering their ideal ruler [viii]. Though on a deeper level, Attar had layered in other meanings and ideas. The poem is about Sufism. Sufism is very particular to a certain type of community and is handed down from leader to pupil, with the cycle continuing. It has common ideas, such as, there is only one God, and that everything comes from that one God. Throughout the poem, Attar overlaps the ideas of Sufism and the character's intentions in the story. It is unknown if Attar was part of the Sufism religion or if he was just an admirer of the ideals.
Though Farid Un-Din Attar is the author of the manuscript another person who played a significant role in the creation of this manuscript was the calligrapher, Sultan 'Ali al-Mashhadi. Sultan Ali al-Mashhadi was the calligrapher of the “Funeral Procession” folio as well other folios in the manuscript such as, “The Anecdote of the Man Who Fell into the Water”. Al-Mashhadi was an immensely popular calligrapher at the time and worked on many works that are still around today. According to the Museum of Contemporary Art, he worked for the ruler of Herat at the time, Sultan Husain Baiqara. This proves his significance as the calligrapher of the manuscript and that the manuscript was meant for someone in the upper class because he seemed to only work with people of high status. Another way to show Ali al-Mashhadi’ importance is by looking at his other well-preserved works and comparing the works to each other. The Divan of Sultan Husayn Baiqara was calligraphed by Ali al-Mashhadi and though these pages do not have paintings on them, it does show his work well [ix]. These pages have intricate details including heads, wolves, deer, and even a rendition of a dragon. The intricacy of these pages and whom the divan belonged to shows how Al Mashhadi was only associated with works connected to people with wealth. This furthers the idea that the manuscript was created for someone who belonged in the upper class of society. When comparing "Funeral Procession", to “The Anecdote of the Man Who Fell into the Water”, while the imagry itself looks similar the “The Anecdote of the Man Who Fell into the Water” is on polished paper that is plain in comparison to the "Funeral Procession" and "Shaikh San'an beneath the Window of the Christian Maiden", Folio18r from a Mantiq al-Tayr (Language of the Birds) which both folios have golden specks in the background. I do not think that this was done for any specific reason due to the fact all three folios are in the same manuscript and play a part in an overarching story line. Once compared against the two divans that Al Mashhadi worked on, it is visible that there is a consistent theme of Al Mashhadi working on manuscripts that have extravagant details and are handled well, even for their age. The Divan (Collected Works) of Mir 'Ali Shir Navai is full of basic yet fictional stories that are used as almost a personal book. They are still lavish pages but they are more simple than the folios in the Mantiq al-Tayr. When looking at the “Funeral Procession” and the Divan of the Sultan Husayn Baiqara, in comparison, they both have details that make them lavish for their time period. The “Funeral Procession” folio, it is the speckled gold background and the golden bands that surround the painting. In the divan, there seems to be less gold, but there are a lot of minute details that prove that someone took countless hours to decorate each page.
The group topic focused on death in the Islamic community and before the explanation of the folio, there needs to be an understanding of how death was interpreted throughout the community. The Islamic community follows the same traditions as most religions such as burials in cemeteries, cleaning the bodies, and hosting burial ceremonies. According to Leor Halevi’s article, they did have extravagant processions but there was somewhat of a debate on if a fire was allowed to be involved due to the debate that burial should be done in low artificial light, or if possible, no artificial light [x]. Even though they believed in having less artificial light, most of their ideals surrounding death are looked at as normal, from society's ideals. When it comes to how the “Funeral Procession'' folio connects to the group's topic of death in the Islamic community, the folio is a visual example of how death was handled. The folio shows a funeral procession of a father and shows the son grieving and talking to a Sufi. Behind that scene, there are men actively digging the grave and prepping it for burial. The folio is included in the poetic story of The Conference of the Birds, so it also shows how death is interpreted in the poetic world during the 13th century.
The group’s focus on death correlates to the overall topic of the community due to the fact that death is something that every culture must deal with. At some point, everyone is going to pass away, so religion must produce a way to make the end seem more calming to their followers. In the Islamic community, there seems to be an understanding of death and coming to peace with it, yet they have a clear idea that there is no reincarnation or afterlife involved once someone has passed away. Death is an event that brings a community together in a moment of grief and where differences can be pushed aside.
i. Kamada, Yumiko. “The Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds) of 1487.”
ii. Kamada, Yumiko. “The Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds) of 1487.”
iii. Lukens, Marie G. “The Fifteenth-Century Miniatures.” 25, no. 9
iv. Kamada, Yumiko. “The Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds) of 1487.”
v. Kamada, Yumiko. “The Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds) of 1487.”
vi. Kamada, Yumiko. "A Taste for Intricacy: An Illustrated Manuscript of Mantiq al-Tayr in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
vii. Attar, Farid Un-Din. The Conference of the Birds, Translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis.
viii. Attar, Farid Un-Din. The Conference of the Birds, Translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis.
ix. Soucek Priscilla. “Divan of Sultan Husayn Baiqara”. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accessed November 15th, 2022.
x. Halevi, Leor. Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society.
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