Iran: 'Idol-worshippers before an Idol'. Miniature from Jafar al-Sadiq's Fal-nama, c. 1550.

A Fal-nama is a book of divination that can be consulted at random. Opposite each painting is an explanatory text. This text tells us that the scene is enacted in the 'Azure monastery' - location unknown. The omens associated with the miniature are highly inauspicious. In around 1550, the ruling Shah Tahmasp developed an Islamic aversion to figurative painting, and it is likely that this manuscript was the last to be made in the shah’s studio, probably under the supervision of the painters Aqa Mirak and Abdul Aziz. It is not clear who the 'idolaters' are, but the scene is probably intended to portray Buddhists at worship.

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