The temporary unbinding of one of the greatest of all Mughal manuscripts allows Louise Nicholson to luxuriate in the art of a liberal, tolerant Islamic court

Exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum are not intended to be political; their remit is simply to display a certain number of of the world's greatest works of art. at the same time a current show there (until 29 January 2006) upon one of the grandest of all illuminated manuscripts, does the two This copy of the Khamsa by the agency of the poet Amir Khusrau, produc in Lahore for the Mughal emperor Akbar in the late 1590 really does catch one's breath with its beauty. on the other hand it also reminds us in timely fashion by what mode important the Islamic cities from India to Spain were as middles of enlightened and liberal patronage and as exemplars of religious and cultural tolerance.

Everything about the manuscript endorses this. allow us start with the true copy the reason for the book's existence--something many times forgotten when there are lavish illustrations. Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) was the ultimate courtier and the Indian subcontinent's greatest Persian-language author of poems The son of an Indian mother and a lucky Sunni Muslim who had tend hitherward from central Asia to look for his fortune under the sultans ruling Delhi, Amir was a precocious talent with a high self regard. Like many of Delhi's sovereigns and courtiers, he was a saintly Sufi and favoured tolerance, asceticism and serving the poor, rather than orthodox Islam. Sultan Feroz Shah Khalji appointed him author of poems laureate, a status he held for life. on the other hand it was under the government from 1295 to 1316 of the sultan's successor, the lavish art patron Ala ad-Din Khalji, that Khusrau wrote his version of the Khamsa in rejoin to the much-lauded original by the agency of the twelfth-century Persian poet Nizami. The body is five loosely connected lengthy poems--Khamsa is Arabic for quintet--one of which is a bizarre apocryphal tale about Alexander the Great.

Thus, the author was an ideal choice for the liberal-thinking and profoundly cultivated Akbar, who consolidated the Mughal empire and initiated the mingling of Persian and Indian cultural traditions. The true copy was also ideal, as it referr to the sophisticated Persian court that Akbar admired while introducing local uncompounded bodys in vocabulary and observations.

The peripatetic emperor had been living in Lahore for a decade when he commissioned a super-deluxe edition of Khusrau's Khamsa. His star calligrapher, Muhammad Husayn al-Kashmiri, began work in 1596 and took about sum of two units years to complete the piece of work writing in elegant nasta'liq script upon highly polished paper. Meanwhile, the royal atelier's top artists created thirty-one full-page illustrations. still despite their rich colours and designs, and their riot of detail and incident, they are rarely comprehensible without their true copy In looking at the manuscript today, it is vital to remember the words of Akbar's court historian, Abu al-Fazl: 'pictures are in like manner much inferior to the written alphabetic character inasmuch as the letter may incarnate the wisdom of bygone ages, and become a means to intellectual process'

Akbar had his Khamsa encased in a lacquer binding to become individual of several super-grand works displaying conspicuous luxuriousness in his library of around 20000 contortions In sum, this sumptuous creation largely reflects the maturity of a glorious synthesis of Persian and Indian agricultures Amazingly, what happened to it after Akbar's death is unknown, as there are no stamps or seals of posterior collectors. We leap the centuries to Henry Waiters, who between 1895 and 1930 assembled a collection of illuminated manuscripts to almost equal Pierpont Morgan's. The Khamsa is part of it, full but for eight folios that had been torn without earlier and were bequeathed to the Met in 1913 The reason for the exhibition is that the Waiters Art Gallery in Baltimore believes the manuscript's tight binding is damaging the fragile paper. Thus, between unbinding and a softer rebinding, the public can diocese the whole manuscript: a rare and timely treat.

Postscript: It is a shame that the accompanying 174-page paperback catalogue through John Seyller is priced at a hefty $55 and that the Met has produc no useful unobtrusive publication. However, the keen can search upon Amazon.com, where second-hand copies start at around $1900

In the next to the first part of their exhibition series exploring of recent origin work by native-American artists within the adjoining matter of international art, the Museum of Arts & Design focuses upon art from the west, northwest and Pacific (until 22 January and then touring). The big and spirited display swings from stuffed acrylic fish and decorative spoon to Rick Barton's 'Dog Pack Series' As the curator, David McFadden, observes: 'the succes of these artists is they bring majestic craftsmanship and an intelligent perspective and humour to their art'.

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