Title: "The Concourse of the Birds Artist: Painting by Habiballah of Sava (Iranian, active ca. 1590–1610) Author: Farid al-Din `Attar (Iranian, Nishapur ca. 1142–ca. 1220 Nishapur) Date: ca. 1600 Geography: Attributed to Iran, Isfahan Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper Dimensions: Painting: H. 10 in. (25.4 cm) The illustration on this folio depicts a scene from a mystical poem, Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds), written by a twelfth-century Iranian, Farid al-Din 'Attar. The birds, which symbolize individual souls in search of the simurgh (a mystical bird representing ultimate spiritual unity), are assembled in an idyllic landscape to begin their pilgrimage under the leadership of a hoopoe (perched on a rock at center right). The careful, harmonious composition is consistent with that of the late fifteenth-century Timurid miniatures also in the manuscript, but three factors indicate that this image is later: the presence of the hunter, who has no place in the narrative; his firearm, a weapon that gained currency in Iran after the mid-sixteenth century; and the signature of the late sixteenth- to early seventeenth-century artist Habiballah.

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