Editing Sultanate of Rum (section)

==Literature==
[[File:Gulshah (right) disguised as a man, watches as her lover Varqa (centre) and his rival Rabi fight on horseback.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Battle scene in ''[[Varka and Golshah]]'', 1225–1250 miniature, [[Konya]], Sultanate of Rum.<ref>These knights were equipped with long swords and bows, and for protection used large shields ("kite-shields"), lamellar armour and ''[[hauberk]]'' mail {{cite book |last1=Gorelik |first1=Michael |title=Oriental Armour of the Near and Middle East from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Centuries as Shown in Works of Art (in Islamic Arms and Armour) |date=1979 |publisher=Robert Elgood |page=Fig. 38 |location=London |isbn=978-0859674706 |url=http://warfare.6te.net/Gorelik-Oriental_Armour.htm}}</ref><ref name="AAOS">{{cite journal |last1=Sabuhi |first1=Ahmadov Ahmad oglu |title=The miniatures of the manuscript "Varka and Gulshah" as a source for the study of weapons of XII–XIII centuries in Azerbaijan |journal=Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences |date=July–August 2015|issue=7–8 |pages=14–16 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305236939}}</ref>]]
The earliest known [[Persian miniature|illustrated manuscript in the Persian language]] is an early 13th century copy of the epic ''[[Varka and Golshah]]'', which was most probably created in [[Konya]], under the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.<ref>{{harvnb|Hillenbrand|2021|p=208}} "The earliest illustrated Persian manuscript, signed by an artist from Khuy in north-west Iran, was produced between 1225 and 1250, almost certainly in Konya. (Cf. A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, ‘Le roman de Varqe et Golsâh’, Arts Asiatiques XXII (Paris, 1970))"</ref><ref name="SSB">{{cite book |last1=Blair |first1=Sheila S. |title=Islamic Calligraphy |date=19 January 2020 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-4744-6447-5 |page=366 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6QxEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA366 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Necipoğlu |first1=Gülru |last2=Leal |first2=Karen A. |title=Muqarnas |date=1 October 2009 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-17589-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gq6obUbnqsMC&pg=PA235 |language=en}}</ref> It can be dated to circa 1250.<ref name="JB214">{{cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Jonathan |last2=Blair |first2=Sheila |title=Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture: Three-Volume Set |date=14 May 2009 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-530991-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=un4WcfEASZwC&pg=RA1-PA214 |page=214–215 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ettinghausen |first1=Richard |title=Arab painting |date=1977 |publisher=New York : Rizzoli |isbn=978-0-8478-0081-0 |page=91, [https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/92/mode/2up?q=%22Illustration+page+91%22 92], [https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/162/mode/2up?q=%22these+Turks%22 162] commentary |url=https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/91/mode/2up |quote=The two scenes in the top and bottom registers (...) may be strongly influenced by contemporary Seljuk Persian (...) like those in the recently discovered Varqeh and Gulshah (p.92) (...) In the painting the facial cast of these Turks is obviously reflected, and so are the special fashions and accoutrements they favored. (p.162, commentary on image from p.91)}}</ref>

The miniatures represent typical Central Asian people, thickset with large round heads.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Waley |first1=P. |last2=Titley |first2=Norah M. |title=An Illustrated Persian Text of Kalīla and Dimna Dated 707/1307-8 |journal=The British Library Journal |date=1975 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=42–61 |jstor=42553970 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42553970 |issn=0305-5167 |quote="A unique Seljùq manuscript in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum Library (Hazine 841) (fig. 7). This manuscript, the romance Varqa va Gulshah, probably dates from the early thirteenth century . The figures in the miniatures with the typical features of Central Asian people are squat and thickset with large round heads. They are to be seen again in a more sophisticated form in the so-called [[Turkman style]] miniatures produced in [[Shiraz]] c. 1460 – 1502 under the patronage of another dynasty of [[Aq Qoyunlu|Turkman invaders]]."}}</ref> They also provide rare depictions of the contemporary military of the Seljuk period, and may have influenced other known depictions of Turkic Seljuk soldiers.<ref name="RE">{{cite book |last1=Ettinghausen |first1=Richard |title=Arab painting |date=1977 |publisher=New York : Rizzoli |isbn=978-0-8478-0081-0 |pages=91–92 |url=https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/92/mode/2up?q=%22Illustration+page+91%22}}</ref> All depicted costumes and accoutrements are contemporary to the artist, in the 13th century CE.<ref name="AAOS"/> The miniatures constitute the first known example of illustrated Persian-language manuscript, dating from the pre-[[Mongol]] era, and are useful in studying weapons of the period.<ref name="AAOS">{{cite journal |last1=Sabuhi |first1=Ahmadov Ahmad oglu |title=The miniatures of the manuscript "Varka and Gulshah" as a source for the study of weapons of XII–XIII centuries in Azerbaijan |journal=Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences |date=July–August 2015|issue=7–8 |pages=14–16 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305236939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gorelik |first1=Michael |title=Oriental Armour of the Near and Middle East from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Centuries as Shown in Works of Art (in Islamic Arms and Armour) |date=1979 |publisher=Robert Elgood |page=Fig.38 |location=London |isbn=978-0859674706 |url=http://warfare.6te.net/Gorelik-Oriental_Armour.htm}}</ref> Particularly, metal face masks and chainmail helmets in Turkic fashion, and armor with small metal plates connected through straps, large round shields (the largest of them called "kite-shields") and long teardrop shields, armoured horses are depicted.<ref name="AAOS"/> The weapons and armour types depicted in the miniatures were common in the Middle East and the Caucasus in the [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk]] era.<ref name="AAOS"/>