Machine summary:
A RAR_E OTTOMAN MANUSCRIPT WITH TWO CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS OF MURAD III HE· National Library of Scotland possesses a few miscellaneous oriental manuscripts catalogued by the authors of the Edinburgh University collection.
will probably be found more numerous than Rieu supposed at that time, it is well to remember that the British Museum then had only eleven illustrated MSS.
There is however a certain stiffness and rigidity in Turkish painting that distinguishes it from the more flexible compositions of the Persians ; this is especially true of figure i.
. Composed in the Ottoman capital, probably for the court, certainly for a wealthy patron able to pay for the costly painting and fine calligraphy, 1 and being fulsomely interlarded with compliments to Murad III, one naturally assumes the pictures are portraits of the monarch.
Portraits of Murad III are reproduced in the catalogue of Stamboul University from a contemporary manuscript of the Shahinsha.
are conventional in composition, closely resembling those of Sulaiman Khan and Murad's immediate predecessor, Salim, both in the Bibliotheque Nationale, reproduced by Blochet in his Musulman Painting.
The second portrait (figure ii) shows the Sultan resplendent in orange coat and blue trousers with gold embroidery, riding out with the favourite and the two Janissaries of the first picture.
By way of comparison, a portrait supposed to be of Murad III, is reproduced here (fig.
C. , Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum, Lon• don, 1888.
Victoria & Albert Museum, A Picture-Book of Turkish Pottery, London.