Mirzā ʿAli-Qoli Khoʾi’s Illustrations to Jouhari’s Ṭufān al-bokā and Other Books of the “Rowże-Khāni” Genre

The more than 30 books whose illustrations have been signed by Mirzā ʿAli-Qoli Khoʾi cover various genres, ranging from classical Persian literature to contemporary popular literature and military manuals for teaching at the Dār al-fonun. The most important genre of books he illustrated, however, are books of the so-called “rowże-khāni” genre. The term “rowże-khāni” here denotes narrative compilations dealing with the history of early Islam from a Shiʿi perspective, in particular with the life and death of Imām Ḥosein and the tragical events of Kerbalā. The most popular of these books in the Qajar period was Jouhari’s contemporary compilation Ṭufān al-bokāʾ for which Mirzā ʿAli-Qoli Khoʾi illustrated at least eleven different editions in his active period of less than ten years (1846-1855). As ʿAli-Qoli was one of the first illustrators to work in this genre of lithographed books, he may duly be regarded as the pioneer of this type of illustration.
My contribution is to discuss the particular genre of “rowże-khāni” illustrations in three sections: At first, I will introduce the different books of this genre published in the Qajar period; as a second step, I will identify the common visual patterns that the artist used; and third, I will introduce samples of the works of later artists who created their work based on the models created by Mirzā ʿAli-Qoli Khoʾi. The essential aim of my contribution is to demonstrate that Mirzā ʿAli-Qoli Khoʾi was not only a highly inventive and original illustrator, but that his illustrations had such a strong impact as to constitute general models for later illustrations included in religious books that more often than not were directly copied from his work.