Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma al-tawarikh. ‘Noah’s Ark’
Iran (Afghanistan), Herat; c. 1425
Leaf: 42.3 × 32.6 cm
Inventory number 8/2005
Timur’s son Shah Rukh (1405-1447) ordered the historian Hafiz-i Abru to write a continuation of Rashid al-Din’s famous history of the world, Jami al-tawarikh. Like the Il-Khanids, the Timurids were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru’s “A Collection of Histories” covers a period that included the time of Shah Rukh himself.
The style of the manuscript’s miniatures is slightly old-fashioned compared with the otherwise refined Timurid painting, but the scene on the stormy sea is quite dramatic, with the fluttering sail, the ark breaking out of the picture frame, and the swollen bodies. The animals that are to populate the earth are rendered both humorously and fairly realistically.
The style of the manuscript’s miniatures is slightly old-fashioned compared with the otherwise refined Timurid painting, but the scene on the stormy sea is quite dramatic, with the fluttering sail, the ark breaking out of the picture frame, and the swollen bodies. The animals that are to populate the earth are rendered both humorously and fairly realistically.
Published in
Published in
American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York 4/10 1936, 2nd session, lot 191;
Kjeld von Folsach: For de Udvalgte Få: Islamisk Miniaturemaleri fra Davids Samling, Louisiana, Humlebæk 2007, cat. 18;
Christian Rohr: ”Sintflutdarstellungen: ein transkultureller Mythos durch Zeiten und Räume,” in Gerrit Jasper Schenk et al. (eds.): Mensch - Natur – Katastrophe von Atlantis bis Heute, Museum Weltkulturen, Mannheim, Regensburg 2014, fig. 4;
Kjeld von Folsach and Joachim Meyer: Menneskefiguren i islamisk kunst: folk, fyrster og hellige mænd, Davids Samling, Copenhagen 2017, cat. 23;
Mohamad Reza Ghiasian: Lives of the Prophets: the illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru's "Assembly of Chronicles", Leiden 2018, cat. 2.2, p. 141;
Ida Hartmann: “På flugt med profeten Noa,” Bibliana, 2, 2025 [online];
Kjeld von Folsach: For de Udvalgte Få: Islamisk Miniaturemaleri fra Davids Samling, Louisiana, Humlebæk 2007, cat. 18;
Christian Rohr: ”Sintflutdarstellungen: ein transkultureller Mythos durch Zeiten und Räume,” in Gerrit Jasper Schenk et al. (eds.): Mensch - Natur – Katastrophe von Atlantis bis Heute, Museum Weltkulturen, Mannheim, Regensburg 2014, fig. 4;
Kjeld von Folsach and Joachim Meyer: Menneskefiguren i islamisk kunst: folk, fyrster og hellige mænd, Davids Samling, Copenhagen 2017, cat. 23;
Mohamad Reza Ghiasian: Lives of the Prophets: the illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru's "Assembly of Chronicles", Leiden 2018, cat. 2.2, p. 141;
Ida Hartmann: “På flugt med profeten Noa,” Bibliana, 2, 2025 [online];
Miniature Paintings
Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma al-tawarikh. ‘A Giant Fish Rescues Abu Ubayda and his Men from Dying of Starvation’
Miniature from a copy of Sharaf al-Din Yazdi’s Zafarnama (Book of Victory). “The Campaign against China after Timur’s death in 1405”
Miniature from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnama. ‘Jamshid is Borne on his Throne into the Air by Demons’
Drawing pasted on an album leaf with calligraphy. ‘Two Wild Boars’