Hamzanama
Hamzanama ( Persian : حمزه نامه, Epic by Hamza) or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza ( Persian :داستان امیر حمزه, Adventure of Amir Hamza) is an important work that tells the fantastic stories of Hamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib , an uncle of the Islamic prophet Mohammed . One of the illuminated manuscripts, a masterpiece of Islamic art is to 1558-1573 during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar I emerged.
The Hamzanama was designed to glorify the heroism of its protagonist. The novel is based on ancient writings and oral traditions that can be traced back more than 1000 years to the ancient Persian Achaemenid Empire .
The Hamzanama manuscripts
The Dastan-e-Amir Hamza exist in different versions. The most important illustrated manuscript comes from Akbar's reign and comprised 1,400 pages. Mostly on one side of the leaves there is an illustration in the format 54 × 69 cm, which combines Persian motifs with Indian style. The opposite side of most of the leaves, however, shows texts in Nastaʿlīq , a Persian font. The sheets are arranged in such a way that the paintings on the reverse accompany the texts on the front of the same page and complement them narratively. The colophon of the manuscript is missing and none of the sheets is signed. The majority of these sheets are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum in London . Another considerable part is in the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna .
A later version was edited by Navab Mirza Aman Ali Khan Ghalib Lakhnavi in 1855 and published by the Hakim Sahib Press in Calcutta , Bengal . This version was embellished by Abdullah Bilgrami in 1871 and published by the Naval Kishore Press in the Indian city of Lucknow .
The Hamzanama was in 16./17. Translated into the Javanese language in the 19th century and made its way to the Indonesian island of Lombok , where Amir Hamzah became the hero of the series of sagas Serat Menak Sasak , whose stories are performed as a shadow play ( wayang kulit ).
literature
- Peter Noever (ed.): Global: Lab - Art as a Message: Asia and Europe, 1500–1700 . Exhibition catalog MAK Vienna. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2474-6 .
- John Seyller: The adventures of Hamza - The most beautiful pictures of Hamzanama . Exhibition catalog. Museum Rietberg , Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-907077-10-5 .
- Musharraf Ali Farooqi: The Adventures of Amir Hamza . Random House Modern Library, New York 2007.