"Farhad Carves a Milk Channel for Shirin", Folio 74 from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja
Sultan Muhammad Nur|Mahmud Muzahib|Shaikh Zada|Nizami
A.H. 931/1524–25 CE · Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper · Islamic Art
In Nizami’s tale of Khusrau and Shirin, the princess Shirin has an ardent admirer in the talented sculptor and stonemason, Farhad. When Shirin desires milk from a herd of goats that graze in a distant field, Farhad sets to work cutting a channel from the goats’ mountain pastureland to a pool at the foot of Shirin’s palace. In this painting, Shirin visits Farhad upon his completion of the pool. At the very top of the composition, a goat cavorts in its hillside home.
- Artist
- Sultan Muhammad Nur|Mahmud Muzahib|Shaikh Zada|Nizami
- Date
- A.H. 931/1524–25 CE
- Medium
- Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
- Department
- Islamic Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Alexander Smith Cochran, 1913
