UDC 2; 94

BBC 71

DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2025-4-44-79

For cit.: Shamilli G.B. On Recontextualization of Images in the Jewish- Persian Manuscript MS1398 from the Collection of Elkhan Natan Adler. Hudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Art & Culture Studies], 2025, no. 4, pp. 44–79. https://doi.org/10.51678/2226-0072-2025-4-44-79. (In Russian)

Shamilli Giula B. 

D.Sc. (in Art History), Leading Researcher, Department of Music Theory, State Institute for Art Studies, 5 Kozitsky Lane, Moscow, 125375, Russia

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2033-0587 

ResearcherID: J-5758-2013

shamilli@yandex.ru

On Recontextualization of Images in the Jewish-Persian Manuscript MS1398 from the Collection of Elkhan Natan Adler

Abstract. The article is devoted to the problem of recontextualization of the images from the poem Khosrow and Shirin by Nizami Ganjavi (ca. 1141 — ca. 1209) in the Judeo-Persian transliteration of the Safavid era (1501–1722). It is a text of Persian classical literature, rewritten in Hebrew script with a significant transformation of the original source. One of the tools was an artistic miniature that illustrated the content of the text in accordance with the context of the life of Jewish communities and the rules of the religious law. Analysing the miniature that depicts the meeting of Farhad and Shirin at Mount Bisutun, the author comes to the conclusion that the artist, using spatial-colour and figurative-semantic means of expression, helps the reader to understand the central idea of repentance as an important topic of the Jewish religious thought and Law. On the contrary, in the Arabic manuscripts of Nizami’s poem, this scene is interpretated in terms of mystical love between Shirin as a divine beauty and Farhad as a gnostic on the path of the knowledge of God. The study showed that the Jewish community elevated the image of King Khosrow II Parviz to King David not only on the basis of historical genealogy, but also their actions related to unintentional participation in the murder of Farhad, in the one case, and Uriah, in the other. 

Keywords: Nizami, Khosrow and Shirin, Judeo-Persian manuscript book, recontextualization, Safavid state, artistic miniature 

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Received 05.08.2025 

Accepted 10.09.2025