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Conceptualization of Space in Miniatures of a Safavid Judeo-Persian Manuscript (1501–1722)

Miniature painting was one of the main forms of plastic art during the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722). This artistic phenomenon has been the subject of well-known works by Russian and foreign scholars. Most of these studies focus on the relationship between text and image. This question is typically explored using well-known manuscripts of Ferdowsi's "Book of Kings" (Shahnameh), as well as poems from Nizami Ganjavi's "Khamsa" and Abdurrahman Jami's "Septenary." Of particular interest is also the spatial arrangements in manuscript illustrations, particularly in the case of little-known 16th- and 17th-century Judeo-Persian transliterations of works by Nizami, Jami, and other poets—that is, Persian texts rewritten in Hebrew script. The paper will present an overview of Judeo-Persian illustrated manuscripts of this period and examine contrasting spatial solutions in relation to the content and purpose of each manuscript.