Art, Allegory and the Rise of Shi’ism in Iran, 1487-1565

While grounded in the field of art history, Kia employs a cross-disciplinary perspective in Art, Allegory and the Rise of Shiism in Iran, showing how religion, culture, politics, and society overlap, intertwine, complement, and contradict one another. Consequently, this original and thought-provoking book will be indispensable for scholars of early modern cultural studies and—equally significantly—to those studying the long duree trajectory of Iranian history.

Written in a scholarly but highly readable style, Kia’s volume not only makes a welcome contribution to the fields of Islamic art in general and Persian painting in particular but it boasts the added benefit of appealing to a non-specialist audience.

Chad Kia convincingly demonstrates the poetic richness and cultural depth of the late fifteenth-century paintings produced in the spiritually imbued intellectual and artistic atmosphere of the Herat elite. Written in rich language and with intellectual sharpness, this book is a pleasure to read.'

The book is highly recommended for those interested Timurid-era Sufism, literature, and manuscript painting, as well as those interested in questions of visual interpretation—especially in illustrative contexts—more generally.