A Miniature Copy of Kulliyat-i Sa'di Found in Koyunoğlu City Museum and Library

One of the most important poets of Persian literature, Sa'di Shirazi, expressed his emotions and thoughts in a mystical manner. The poetic and prose works he wrote are compiled under the title Kulliyat. With his unique style of narration, Sa'di Shirazi's works have held a distinguished place and have been among the foremost literary manuscripts reproduced in various centers for centuries. Especially during the Safavid period, the city of Shiraz became a center where a large number of copies of this work were produced. The miniatures found in the Kulliyat work have made the text more engaging for the reader by illustrating important stories, thus making it more captivating. In the city of Shiraz, where commercial production was prominent, there was a high demand for miniature copies of the Kulliyat-i Sa'di, especially from the Ottoman region. This situation is supported by the fact that numerous copies of the work can be found in museums and libraries within the country. Today, the Kulliyat-i Sa'di manuscript registered under inventory number 14694 at the Koyunoğlu Library contains twelve pages of miniatures. These miniatures are highly significant due to their depiction of stories and their stylistic features. In the mentioned manuscript, which has not been examined before, in addition to the introduction and ending miniatures, there are 3 miniatures in the work called Gulistan; 3 miniatures in Bustan, 1 miniature in Kasayid-i Farisi, 2 miniatures in Tayyibat and 1 miniature in Muzhikat. As a result of the examination of the miniature style features in the work, which has no copy date, the stylistic influence of the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century is felt. The examination of this work aims to determine how the political situation of the period influenced the artistic activities in the Shiraz region.