Death of Layla, from a poetic manuscript

This page from an unknown manuscript, perhaps a Khamsa of Nizami or another of the many poetic versions of the love story of Layla and Majnun, illustrates the episode when Layla, having met Majnun one last time in the desert, dies of a broken heart and Majnun, hearing of Layla’s death, also dies. Divided into three scenes beginning at the top, the painting depicts Layla in her tent, collapsed on the lap of another female figure. In the middle ground, Layla’s coffin, draped in elaborate textiles, is carried by three men while a group of women mourn and wail uncontrollably at left, and a group of grieving men, at right, rent their clothes or cover their eyes or mouths with their scarves. In the foreground, at lower right, the emaciated Majnun lies unconscious on the ground, having collapsed at the news of Layla.The painting is done on a largely gold ground, which is a feature of the style of the Shaybanid court artist Mahmud Muzahhib. A late Timurid period painter trained in Herat (in modern Afghanistan), he introduced the Herati painting style to Bukhara, after he was brought to that capital by the Shaybanid ruler. The Shaybanids, a Turko-Mongol dynasty, had expanded their territory to encompass the city of Herat by the early 16th century, after the fall of the Timurid dynasty. Other elements of Mahmud Muzahhib’s style include the architectural drawing of the textile-covered tents, and the complex composition and rendering of space. It seems this painting was done by an artist in his circle working in the atelier in Bukhara.