Khamsa of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi

Copied by Hidayat Allah two centuries after the death of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi, this Khamsa manuscript is opened to an illustration from the narrative poem (masnavi ) Hasht-Bihisht (The Eight Paradises). Dihlavi was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet, and scholar who served under the Delhi Sultanate. His Hasht-Bihisht is about Bahram Gur, King of the Sasanian Empire, who reigned from 420–438 AD. Bahram Gur is also the central figure in some of the most famous works in Persian literature, such as the Shahnama (The Book of Kings) by Ferdowsi and the romantic epic of Haft Peykar, also known as Bahranama, by Nizami. Hasht-Bihisht describes seven days of Bahram Gur visiting the seven pavilions built in his palace complex to listen to stories told by seven princesses who came from across the world. The Eight Paradises in the poem relate closely to the Islamic notion of Heaven with its eight gates, each of which is decorated with special precious stones or materials. In the illustrated folio shown here, Bahram Gur sits with the princess of Khwarazam in the Camphor Pavilion, representing the eighth paradise. She tells him a story of a king who finds a wife after visiting four different princesses in four different pavilions. When the king decided to take the fourth princess as a wife, he pledged not to take another. Sitting amidst white and blue mosaic tiles and wall painting, a gilded lintel, flowery rugs, and accompanied by a handful of courtesans, Bahram Gur and the princess of Khwarazam wear camphor-white, the color of purity, embellished with gold embroidery.