A fine miniature painting on paper (in gouache) heightened with gold, from a copy of the ISKANDERNAMA written in Kashmir, in AH 21 Rajab 1234 or 1819 AD. The miniature shows the gift of three white elephants from the Shah of Persia to the poems hero, Alexander the Great, after his successful wars against the Africans who had invaded Egypt. Nezami's image of Alexander is that of an Iranian knight. The Iskandernama was written by Nizami Ganjavi, (Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi) whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī, was a 12th-century Muslim poet. He is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature. Given the poems popularity, it has been faithfully copied and masterfully illustrated many times since. Nizami was born 1141 in the Seljuk empire (now Azerbaijan) and spent almost his entire life in Ganja. His reputation rests on his great Khamseh (“The Quintuplet”), a pentalogy of poems written in mas̄navī verse form (rhymed couplets) and totaling 30,000 couplets. Drawing inspiration from the Persian epic poets Ferdowsī and Sanāʾī, he proved himself the first great dramatic poet of Persian literature. The Iskandernama is the fourth part of the Khamsa of Nizami, a posthumous collection of five of Nizami's major works. It consists of two main and independent parts: the Sharaf-nama (Book of Glory) followed by the Iqbal-nama (Book of Fortune) (though the names are reversed in some copies). Both are written in rhymed couplets. The miniature is in good condition with vibrant colours and clear details. However, you can see in images 1h (reverse of miniature) and 1i (held up to backlighting), that it has been necessary to strengthen the miniature around the frame. this has been done on the reverse of the miniature. This cannot be seen from the front and so images 1 to 1g are faithful to what you would see when framed. Please note that shipping costs are not solely the cost of the postal delivery service itself. Included within the shipping price is the work undertaken to prepare the article, for photography, for uploading to Catawiki, for preparation and packaging the article securely and for transporting the article to the postal delivery agent for processing. Also, please consider when bidding on this lot that this artwork is shipped from the UK. Import duties will now have to be paid by the recipient to the Postal Service when the parcel arrives in your country. This will likely vary between 5% and 20% of the sale price depending on your country's Import Rate, so please check this if you are concerned. This is a Tax collected on behalf of your Government and is not an additional fee charged by us.