Behzad – the Artist
Behzad – Unlikely Artist of the Sultan
Kamaleddin Behzad, was born in Herat (an oasis town in modern-day Afghanistan) around 1450, and by the time of his death in 1535, had served as the royal painter for the Timurud, Safavid, and finally Ottoman empires. Behzad was able to do this despite Islam’s apparent figurative iconophobia. Behzad and his workshop created some of the greatest manuscript paintings used to illustrate mythologies, romances, conquests, and histories from the Asian steppe to Anatolia. The Yarmouk Manuscript was his final work. Perhaps most interestingly, there is evidence to support that at least some of the folios while painted by Behzad, were originally calligraphed with a text, The King and the Beggar, by the writer, Yahya. Below are links to several of Behzad’s works from the Manuscript.
