Text with ornamented border (recto and verso), folio from a manuscript of the Salaman va Absal of Jami

The Persian poet ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami composed and dedicated Salaman va Absal to Sultan Yaqub Aq Quyunlu (r. 1478-90). This allegorical poem was completed between 1488 and 1490 to commemorate Yaqub’s public abstinence from alcohol. This double-sided folio contains three narrative episodes from the larger poem: The Sage’s Counsel to Salaman, The Tale of the Rooster and the Muezzin, and a portion of Salaman’s Response to the Sage. Written in fine nastaliq, the text is arranged in two columns on a cream-colored sheet of paper that was carefully cut, trimmed, and mounted into the window cutout of a larger decorative sheet featuring exquisite paintings of lotus blossoms and various animals amongst lush foliage in gold on a red ground. Once dry, the artisan would have burnished the joined seams to crush the fibers together, ensuring that the entire page appears as a single, continuous sheet. This technique of cutting and seamlessly mounting text blocks into decorative margins was known as vassāli.