Bahram Gur and the Indian Princess

Description The cypress is a frequent motif in Iranian literature, often used as a metaphor for a beautiful man or woman. Here, the protagonist Bahram Gur is told a tale by the Indian princess about a fantasy garden inhabited by beautiful fairies and their queen: "A cypress she, those maids her mead; they jasmine, she a rose of red."

Exhibitions

• Paradise Imagined: Images of the Garden in the Islamic and Christian World. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2012.

Provenance Muhammad Asharf ibn Muhammad Khatam al-Husayni, 1173 AH/AD 1759-1760 [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [seal impression on fols. 1a and 401a]; Husayn …[?], 1308 AH/AD 1890-1891 [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [ownership statement on fol. 1b]; Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters