Siyah Qalam

Originally, the album paintings and drawings within this collection were attributed to the name of Muhammad Siyah Qalam. The works bear either hastily written jottings or elegant nastaliq attributions to the name, with some including the title of Ustad or “the Master,” showing that the artist held some status.[4]

Identifying the notname has led to debate, with some associating Muhammad Siyah Qalam with a Herat painter, Hajji Muhammad.[5] Others have identified Yaqub Beg’s court painters, Shaykhi and Darvish Muhammad, as contributors to the collection alongside Muhammad Siyah Qalam, while some suggest Darvish Muhammad and Muhammad Siyah Qalam may be one and the same.[4] However, a broad scholarly consensus has formed around the idea that the paintings are likely the work of numerous individuals.[6]

Dancing Men

Within the collection, there are depictions of demons, monsters, camp life, animals, fairy-like beings, and human figures in Chinese and Mongolian clothing. Alongside figural depictions are also details of nature (such as rocks and trees) which recur in Turkman court paintings of the Yaqub Beg period.[4]

The more fantastical and intensely coloured[7] images seem to conjure the devastation and bleakness of Genghis Khan's reign.[8] The images contain dark colors, heavy lines, and highly animated figures against a blank background using unsized, unpolished paper and a limited range of colors.[9]

The compositions are highly expressive, and a number of figures are engaged in ecstatic ritual or dance.[10] The fantastical monsters are drawn from local Pre-Islamic Central Asian folklore, bearing resemblance to beings of Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern legend as Central Asia lies on the cultural crossroad between the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia.[8] Many of the earthly scenes depict everyday life in the Central Asian Steppes as lived by various ethnic people, most prominent the Turkic and Iranian; washing clothes, blowing fire on a cooker, hanging lines of bows and arrows.[11] Furthermore, a drawing in the Siyah Qalam collection seems to be an adaptation of a European painting of Hercules strangling a lion.[12] The living wear various head-dress and costumes and carry a variety of tools and weapons, and engage in different rituals.[8]

It is commonly agreed upon by scholars that the illustrations were originally connected in a certain sequence belonging to a scroll and were possibly accompanied by narration when being presented. Experts have examined the paintings and determined that they have been cut from one scroll and reattached haphazardly.[1]

Several features in the illustrations are linked to Jalāyirid painting in particular to the Great Jalāyirid Šāhnāma, an unfinished manuscript with illustrations that are also scattered throughout multiple albums.[12] The miniatures were influenced by Chinese art, both in their sinuous lines and fluid rhythms, and in the figure's dress in that country's traditional dress. The works are of historical interest because of their depictions of everyday life of the faded world of historic Central Asia; with descriptions of tools, costumes, rituals, headdress, and the treatment of domesticated animals.[8]

The cultic acts, especially the ecstatic movement of the dancing figures, filled with emotion and vehement gestures display winding and twisted limb motifs that are also seen in Buddhist and Islamic paintings.[11]

The sources for the drawings are uncertain; various parts may be influenced by the Shahnameh and the biblical Solomon. Other drawings made against blank backgrounds (such as the encampment) may at first seem to be parts of a coherent series, but at further glance could be individual studies.[12] In addition, given their often disparate size; their precise function cannot be determined with much certainty, though it might be that they were intended as aids to storytelling, to Royal elites.[3]

Demons Sawing a Tree

The paintings of demons (or div) are mostly contained in album H. 2153, these demons are often depicted performing human actions such as sawing trees, drinking, and playing musical instruments.[13] The demons are semi-naked, often wearing short skirts and barefoot, with some having long scarves over their shoulders.[13] Some have argued that the accessories these demons wear are necklaces, earrings, pendants, or wrist and ankle bracelets, show a relation to Sufism, perhaps making the works a critique of Sufis during a historical period of political turmoil, uncertainty, and changes of power.[12][13]

The choice of exhibiting demons throughout the paintings was for them to appear as negative entities that instill danger to the community. Influences of the Shahnameh and the biblical Solomon alluded to the North as the domain for demons, with Siyah Qalam suggesting that there was a connection to the Sufis (who progressed from the north).[12]

Muhammad Siyah Qalam is believed to have lived somewhere in the Qipchaq steppe, either in Moghulistan, Turkestan, or Eastern Anatolia.[1] Siyah Qalam’s paintings, with their strange iconography, were directly impacted from the environmental space the artist was surrounded with. The influence for Siyah Qalam’s paintings could include aspects of Turkmen, Chinese, Persian, and Mongolian culture, indicating an eastern provenance.[14] Despite speculation about the life and work of the painter, or painters, who painted in this style, the aesthetic and inspiration certainly originates from the various schools of painting most recognizable from the region of Central or Southwest Asia.[1]

The extant leaves are taken from a number of scrolls that transferred ownership during wars and land occupations. The extant leaves are recorded in inventories in Istanbul and in the library of Topkapi palace of Sultan Selim I as treasure from his 1514 Persian adventure.[8]

In 1910, Siyah Qalam's paintings were displayed in an exhibition of Islamic art in Munich. Since that exhibition, various scholars have attempted to geographically and historically pinpoint when and where the artist surfaced, with a variety of viewpoints being advanced.[1][6]

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  Daily life of nomads, including men washing clothes, starting a cooking fire and carrying bows and arrows
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  Study of Boars at battle
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  Folio 90, recto; Performance Scene, African
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  Folio; Demons, the dead and the living at battle
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  Caravan
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  Two Demons Binding a Captured Dragon
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  Demon in Chains
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  Demon Standing and Speaking in Reproach
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  Demons at an Entertainment
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  Demons Sawing a Tree
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  Disguised Demon