Safavid art, science, and courtly education in the seventeenth century

Abstract

My paper studies several manuscripts of Abd al-Raḥmān ṣūfī’s Kitāb al-kawākib al-thābita, which were produced at the Safavid court, a provincial court at Mashhad or by artists related to either of them. The purpose is to contribute in a small manner to a cultural history of science in a specific context of one of the major post-classical societies. Its main claim is that the Safavid elite paid considerable attention to, and invested substantial resources in, reproducing famous illustrated scientific manuscripts. Content and aesthetic point to Timurid inspirations. In a limited sense, one could speak of a Safavid engagement with translating scientific, medical and geographical texts from Arabic into Persian. The integration of art, science and translation could be described as a specific feature of courtly interest in scholarly knowledge under the Safavids.