"Farhad Carves a Milk Channel for Shirin", Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami

Nizami (Ilyas Abu Muhammad Nizam al-Din of Ganja) · 1524-01-01T00:00:00Z

In Nizami’s tale of Khusrau and Shirin, the princess Shirin has an ardent admirer in the talented sculptor and stonemason, Farhad. When Shirin desires milk from a herd of goats that graze in a distant field, Farhad sets to work cutting a channel from the goats’ mountain pastureland to a pool at the foot of Shirin’s palace. In this painting, Shirin visits Farhad upon his completion of the pool. At the very top of the composition, a goat cavorts in its hillside home.