Professor Vasily Dmitrievich Smirnov described it in the following words: “a very fanciful exemplar, although one cannot call it an elegant one”. The brightness of colours and a variety of decorative elements in this “fanciful exemplar” are very impressive.
Each of the five poems has margins of its own colour: “Treasury of Secrets” – green, “Laili and Majnun” – purple, “Seven Beauties” – yellow, “Khusraw and Shirin” – blue, “Iskandarnama” – red.
Thanks to the colouring of the borders, the reader can open a book on the poem that he wants, and for a quick search for illustrations the technique common in Central Asia was used: small filament tassels are attached to the edges of the folios with miniatures and ‘unvan headpieces. These tassels form a geometric pattern on the book fore-edge.
On closer examination, it becomes obvious that the text sheets were exposed to moisture, as indicated by slight traces of stains, but there are no such traces on the coloured borders. This means that the original damaged margins had been cropped and replaced with new, coloured ones.
And here comes the question: when was this restoration carried out – before the decoration and illustrations appeared in the book, or later? All ‘unvan headpieces are drawn directly over the new coloured margins, while only one sheet with a miniature has a trace of moisture, but it is under the layer of paint. This means, apparently, that the decoration, including miniatures, was made after the restoration, and cannot be dated by the year of copying.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Arts of the book in the 15th–17th-century Mawarannahr" (Volume XVII) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
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