Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond

The first thing to draw my eye at this exhibition - and what turned out to be my absolute favourite work - was Guillaume de Loris’s ‘Le Roman de la Rose’. It was a large book, and the pages were noticeably made of vellum. I could see pores in the fabric, as well as holes along the edges of the page where the vellum had been strung up and tightened. I could also see margins drawn in what looked like pale red pencil.

Something I love about history, which might be evident on this blog due to the links up on the side, is the food. We may not have the same dress, the same hairstyles, the same weapons or the entirely same way of stringing words together, but something that hasn’t changed is that we still need to eat! Sure, we may have slightly different tastes, but re-creating a medieval meal is easier and cheaper than buying a sword or a corset.

In “Journal of the voyage of Sir Thomas Dodmore Cotton with Sir Robert Sherley and others to Persia as Ambassador from Charles I” (what a mouthful!) the writer Robert Stodart describes a lavish feast:

“Here my Lord dined, his meate being carried all in beaten gould; the dishes wer soe bigg that they were as much as a man could carry from the kiching to the place wher the meate was layde; on a great dish was carried upon a barrow of gould between two men”

The exhibition featured so many eye-catching works. I must admit I’ve never really been interested in Persian, Ottoman or Islamic culture, and I don’t quite understand the history of it even after visiting the exhibition, but I can appreciate how beautiful it was and how much it inspired English and European writing, food, clothing, etc. It was so romantic and exotic to the Europeans, who travelled there often.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has been associated with Farid al-Din ‘Attar’s ‘Conference of the Birds’ and ‘1001 Nights’ due to similarities in narrative, plots and other elements, and in addition the title of Chaucer’s ‘Parliament of fowls’ is reminiscent of Conference of the birds, which suggests there was definitely influence over Western thought by the Persians. Farid al-Din ‘Attar was often called the Greatest sufi poet of the 12^th century.

Another of my favourite items at the exhibition was an untitled costume or picture book attributed only to ‘a traveller to Istanbul'. It was purchased by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1607 and was the 549^th accession into this ‘new library at Oxford’!

Overall what impressed me most about Persian manuscripts is their breathtakingly vibrant use of colour. They also played some Persian music at the exhibition which was hauntingly beautiful. I learned a new word too: Samimiat. It means faithfulness and dedication, and suggests closeness between the human and the divine; “Devotion”.

I was going to scan pamphlets etc. that I’d collected at the exhibition, but there weren’t any; only small, single sheet advertisements. (I was very disappointed as I am a bit of a brochure hoarder!)

So instead I will have to leave you with a link to the State Library of Victoria’s special exhibition website, which is host to an array of beautiful images and a wealth of information on Persian Manuscripts as well as the Bodleian Library (which you will learn more about in my next post!)

Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond Online Exhibition 

RESEARCH

I must say I didn’t encounter any struggles whilst doing my research for this blog, except for the fact they didn’t have any brochures.

SOURCES

Information gathered and interpreted and put into my own words based on information from the “Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond” exhibition at the State Library of Victoria.

State Library of Victoria 2012, Love and devotion: from Persia and beyond, viewed 29 April 2012, < http://exhibitions.slv.vic.gov.au/love-and-devotion>

State Library of Victoria 2012, Chaucer, Love and devotion: from Persia and beyond, viewed 29 April 2012 <http://exhibitions.slv.vic.gov.au/love-and-devotion/explore/chaucer>.