Collection Spotlight: August, 2025

A Female Messenger Visits Farhad

Folio from the Khamsa of Nizami

Tragic romances have always captured the popular imagination, inspiring some of the greatest artworks. Counted among these are the stories in the Khamsa of Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209), a highly-celebrated medieval Persian poet. A Khamsa (Arabic: “Quintet”) is composed of five poems; Nizami’s contains four romantic epics and one philosophical treatise. Khamsa from the Timurid Period (1385–1501 CE) in Iran were often richly illustrated and calligraphed in Nastaliq, a script used for writing in Arabic and Classical Persian among other languages. Like most surviving Timurid-period paintings, an unknown artist painted “A Female Messenger Visits Farhad” for a manuscript, rather than as a stand-alone work. Books of this caliber were only available to the wealthy, given the cost of paints made from gold, silver, and lapis lazuli. 

The folio referenced above, titled “A Female Messenger Visits Farhad,” depicts a scene from Khosrow and Shirin. The second poem in the Khamsa, Khosrow and Shirin recounts a fictionalized version of the romance between Sasanian king Khosrow II and a Christian princess, Shirin. Nizami imbued his poem with moral lessons, contrasting Khosrow’s inconstancy with Shirin’s purity and loyalty. After Khosrow becomes jealous of Farhad, a sculptor madly in love with Shirin, he sends a female messenger to lie to Farhad by telling him that Shirin has died. The fabricated news of her death leads Farhad to throw himself off Mount Bisutun. 

Farhad’s suicide foreshadows the tragic end to the romance. After numerous trials separating the couple, including Khosrow’s marriage to two other women, Khosrow and Shirin are wed. Alas, their marital bliss is destroyed by Khosrow’s son Shiruya, who murders his father and demands his stepmother’s hand in marriage. Shirin commits suicide on Khosrow’s corpse, uniting their bodies in the mortal world and their souls in the afterlife. 

Historically speaking, Khosrow II (d. 628, r. 590–628) and Shirin remained married from 592 C.E. until Khosrow’s death. She played an influential role as the Empire’s Queen (šahr bāmbišn), securing rights for Iranian Christians and commissioning the construction of several churches. In 628, Khosrow II’s rule concluded, as he either fled the invading Byzantine army or was deposed and executed by his son Kavadh II. 

Born in Ganja (part of modern-day Azerbaijan), Ilyas ibn Yusuf Muḥammad chose Nizami as his pen name, with the title “Ganjavi” meaning “from Ganja.” He had three wives—marrying again only after the previous spouse died—and outlived each of them. His characterization of Shirin was based on Araq, an enslaved Christian Qipchaq woman. Araq was trafficked to Nizami as a gift following the publication of his first epic poem. In defiance of the marital traditions of the period, she became his first and most beloved wife. Nizami began Khorsrow and Shirin after Araq’s death in 1180 CE (576 AH). Parts of the poem address their young son, Moḥammad, directing him toward ethical and sensible behavior. 

The Art Complex Museum acquired this folio from Leland C. and Paula Wyman, who in turn purchased it from Hassan Khan Monif, a prolific collector and art dealer. Folios from his collection are found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The Brooklyn Museum identified three Monif manuscripts—which contained parts of Nizami’s Khamsa and other Persian epics—as the origin of folios now housed in disparate collections. Further research into the provenance of Timurid folios may allow for viewing these paintings in their original context: as fragments of a larger artwork. 

Sources 

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Unknown artist
Iran, Timurid Period (1385–1501 CE)
Persian, possibly Shiraz

Watercolor paint, ink (Nastaliq script), and gold on paper