Persian Manuscripts and Paintings from the Berenson Collection.

In situating this picture Sims gives an extensive account of what is known of the dispersed parent manuscript and the literary significance of the moment depicted. The third essay, an account of the conservation of the manuscript by Katherine Beaty and Penley Knipe, reveals a considerable history of interventions of various sorts over time. The attribution of its pictorial verso of kneeling sages to the fifteenth-century painter Bihzad was already discounted by Ettinghausen; Parodi argues cogently for an origin in Shibanid Bukhara. [Extracted from the article]