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LACMA

Rare Manuscripts: Glimpses from an Illustrated Copy of Nizami’s Layla and Majnun

LACMA’s two folios from a dispersed 1517 Shiraz manuscript show Layla and Majnun’s first meeting at school and Majnun’s pilgrimage to the Ka’aba.

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A celebrated illustrated copy of Nizami’s Layla va Majnun was made in Shiraz in 1517, but it no longer survives as a bound book. Its pages were dispersed, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) holds seven folios, including two that show the lovers’ first meeting at school and Majnun’s pilgrimage to the Ka’aba. They offer distinct glimpses of the romance—and of how sixteenth-century Persian artists imagined it.

What manuscript do these images come from?

The best-documented match for an illustrated copy featured under this title is a 1517 Shiraz manuscript of Nizami’s Khamsa, or Quintet. LACMA’s records identify two folios from that manuscript: Layla and Majnun at School (M.73.5.417) and Majnun at the Ka’aba (M.73.5.423). Both are catalogued as ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, made in Shiraz in 1517 (AH 924). The associated colophon names the scribe as Muhammad Zarin-Qalam.

The folios belonged to a bound book, but the manuscript was later disassembled, likely when it entered the art market, and its pages became dispersed. LACMA holds seven folios from it, including the colophon. These are individual pages from a once-bound work, not a surviving complete manuscript. The title alone does not identify a unique copy: other collections hold illustrations from different manuscripts with their own dates and histories.

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What is Nizami’s Layla and Majnun?

Layla va Majnun is the third of the five lyrical narrative poems in Nizami’s Khamsa. The romance tells of Layla and Qays, whose love is thwarted by family and social constraints. Qays becomes known as Majnun—“madman”—as his longing for Layla draws him away from ordinary life. The LACMA folios make two moments in that story visible: the lovers’ encounter as students and Majnun’s steadfastness during a pilgrimage his father hopes will cure him.

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What do the LACMA folios depict?

Layla and Majnun meet at school

In Layla and Majnun at School, the two future lovers encounter one another among students learning to read from tablets under a teacher. The scene places the romance’s beginning in a school setting, but the architecture and clothing reflect the artists’ sixteenth-century Shiraz environment rather than the Arabian setting of Nizami’s story. The image is therefore not simply a record of the tale’s supposed historical world; it also shows how its makers pictured that tale in their own time.

Majnun at the Ka’aba

In the second folio, Majnun’s father takes him on pilgrimage to the Ka’aba, hoping the sacred journey will turn him from his passion. Instead, Majnun affirms his love for Layla. LACMA describes the episode as both a story of love and a spiritual allegory. The architecture is imaginative; the museum notes that the artist may not have seen the Ka’aba firsthand.

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How do these folios differ from other Layla and Majnun illustrations?

Illustrations of the romance do not all belong to the same book. Date, location, scene, and ownership history should be tied to the particular leaf or manuscript being discussed—not transferred from one example to another.

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Collection record Date and place What it depicts Object and history
LACMA, M.73.5.417 and M.73.5.423 1517 (AH 924), Shiraz The lovers at school; Majnun at the Ka’aba Two folios from a dispersed Khamsa; ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. The associated colophon names Muhammad Zarin-Qalam as scribe. School scene record; Ka’aba scene record.
Smithsonian, F1908.270 1548 (955 AH), Shiraz The lovers’ last meeting A separate folio; the record identifies Murshid al-Shirazi as calligrapher. Charles Lang Freer purchased it from Tabbagh Frères in Paris in 1908; the Freer Gallery received it as part of his gift in 1920. Smithsonian record.
Smithsonian, F1931.23 1475–1500, Turkmen period Shaykh Salim visits Majnun in the wilderness; reverse text describes Layla searching for him A detached leaf from a dispersed Nizami Khamsa. Hagop Kevorkian owned it before its 1931 purchase for the Freer Gallery. Smithsonian record.

The comparison shows why a single date or provenance cannot be assigned to “the Layla and Majnun manuscript” in general. The LACMA pages belong to one dispersed 1517 book; the Smithsonian examples are different leaves from other copies.

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Where can you see the pages?

When the collection records were accessed on October 2, 2026, LACMA listed both folios as not on view. The Smithsonian likewise listed F1908.270 as not on view. Each collection entry provides a way to examine the object online; availability and display status can change, so check the current record before visiting. For reproduction or reuse, follow the image-use terms on the relevant museum page and confirm permissions with the holding institution.

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