IIS Lecture

The First Mevlevi Manuscripts: Illuminated Manuscript Production in Late Medieval Rūm

The Institute of Ismaili Studies is pleased to invite you to the lecture The First Mevlevi Manuscripts: Illuminated Manuscript Production in Late Medieval Rūm on Tuesday 18 June 2019 at 5pm (BST) at Aga Khan Centre, London.

The lecture will be delivered by Cailah Jackson, Bahari Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

About this Lecture

Scholarship concerning the artistic landscapes of medieval Rūm has made encouraging progress in recent years. Published research to date, however, has not addressed the production of the Islamic arts of the book in this period and, more specifically, the important role played by Sufi artists and patrons. Several illuminated manuscripts remain from the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Many of these feature lavish ornamentation and contain rich historical details concerning the involvement of Mevlevi scribes and patrons. However, this material remains relatively neglected in broader surveys of Islamic art.

This lecture partially addresses this gap in scholarship by discussing several illuminated manuscripts from late medieval Rūm. These manuscripts are the earliest produced by and for Mevlevi devotees but have not been examined in detail or analysed within their fullest cultural contexts. Cailah Jackson will outline the diverse decorative features of these manuscripts and describe the part that early Mevlevi disciples played in copying and endowing some of the most lavish books to have been produced in this period.

This event is free. Please register to attend in person or online.

About the speaker
Cailah Jackson is currently the Bahari Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book at the Bodleian Library, where she is researching Muzaffarid and Jalayirid manuscripts. She completed a DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford in 2017 entitled ‘Patrons and Artists at the Crossroads: The Islamic Arts of the Book in the Lands of Rūm, 1270s-1370s’.

The thesis, which concerns the production and patronage of illuminated manuscripts in late medieval Rūm (Anatolia), will be published as a monograph by Edinburgh University Press in late 2020/early 2021. She is the winner of several awards and scholarships including the Leigh Douglas Memorial Dissertation Prize and the Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize.

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The Institute of Ismaili Studies · Aga Khan Centre · 10 Handyside Street · London, England N1C 4DN · United Kingdom