Questioning the “classical” in Persian painting: models and problems of definition

In scholarship on Persian book arts, paintings have tended to be organized according to a rise-and-fall model. Within this overarching framework, the Ilkhanid period represents the birth of painting and the Qajar era its supposed decline, while Timurid and Safavid painting mark a high point for the development of pictorial arts in Iran. As a result, scholars have used the term ‘classical’ to describe both Timurid and Safavid painting. The many definitions of ‘classical’ – which alternatively engage with aesthetic criteria, time periods, numerical output, systems of patronage, artistic models, and stylistic imitations – raise a number of significant questions, however. This study highlights the problematic uses of the term in scholarship on Persian manuscript painting. Moreover, by examining a series of interrelated Ilkhanid, Timurid, and Safavid paintings of the Prophet Muhammad in particular, it seeks to explore alternative models for studying the history of Persian manuscript painting, itself too diverse and self-referential to be confined to a linear account.