-

The Jalayirids were one of the several petty principalities that emerged as the successors to the IIkhanids . They controlled the territories of Iraq for most of their reign (c. 1336-1410), occasionally extending their power into Azerbaijan. The accounts of contemporary historian suggest that the Jalayirids in particular were a dynasty unusually noted for their artistic interests, chief among them being the art of the book. Having examined the written evidence for this, we can turn to the manuscripts themselves for the further light they shed on these and other matters. Baghdad had remained an important center of book production in Jalayirids time, and to it we can add Tabriz, exercising such a degree of importance as Baghdad. In this article we can see how a tradition of illustrating manuscripts gave way in the thirteenth century to the production of illustrated books for a varied audience.