Herat court kitabkhana

Timeline

1. 1469–1480Herat · HeratAfter securing his position in Herat, Husayn Bayqara continued the court patronage dating from Shahrukh, integrating the library and manuscript workshop into a kitabkhana. Mirak Naqqash directed it as chief scribe, while Ali-Shir Nava'i first through a private workshop and then as chancellor supplied talent and funds, making Herat once again the bookmaking center of the Persian-speaking world.
2. 1480–1506Herat court kitabkhana · HeratBehzad, raised and trained by Mirak, first served Nava'i and then entered the sultan's kitabkhana, ultimately becoming the chief court painter. Figure groupings, garden and architectural scenes in manuscripts such as Sa'di's Bustan held in Cairo represent the peak of the Herat school. The kitabkhana also gathered calligraphy masters such as Sultan Ali Mashhadi, forming an integrated copying–painting–binding production line.
3. 1506–1510Herat · HeratHusayn Bayqara died in 1506; the following year Muhammad Shaybani captured Herat and the kitabkhana's organization was interrupted. Babur and others record that Behzad at one point had contact with Shaybani's court. After the Safavid conquest in 1510, Behzad and others were taken to Tabriz, and the Herat kitabkhana's compositional and coloring traditions passed into the Safavid royal atelier, becoming one of the sources of 16th-century Persian miniature painting.