Pen Case. Signed by the court painter Muhammad Isma‘il
Iran, 1864-65
Copyright © Aga Khan Museum

A microcosm of the artistic, literary, and spiritual preoccupations of 19th-century Iran, this pen case shows scenes from the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), the early 11th-century Persian epic poem, and from Sufi poems, along with portraits of famous Sufi mystics, and of the Shah and his courtiers.