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Frontispiece of a 15th-century Ottoman Sulayman-Name
70. Frontispiece painting from a copy of Firdusi's Sulayman-nameh, probably made for Sultan Bayazid II (1481-1512), from Bursa, Turkey. c. 1500, King Sulayman (Solomon enthroned). 9⅞ x 7˝ in. (25 x 19 cm.). Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. The upper part of the painting shows Sulayman seated upon his throne which is surmounted by a dome. He is surrounded by attendants and angels. Below his throne, in three registers, are various monstrous beings that appear to be in his service. At the bottom of the painting in the last register are what appear to be the royal stables. The introduction of monstrous beings into Sulayman's entourage is particularly interesting in view of the possible interpretation of some Herat paintings of about a century earlier (see plate 55). The painting is one of the earliest to have come down to us from the Ottoman court school in Istanbul.
Source: p.118, The world of Islam by Ernst J. Grube