Rumi's father preaching at the Qaniʿi cemetery, Konya

What it is

This is a miniature painting with Persian calligraphy above and below the scene. A seated bearded man in green robes is surrounded by a crowd of turbaned figures in colourful robes, in an architectural courtyard with patterned tiles. Some figures gesture and raise their hands, and a figure in the upper left looks out from a balcony window. The painter is not named, and the work is dated 1590.

Why it matters

The painting depicts Rumi's father, who preached in Konya, as the family later remembered him. It was made many decades after Rumi's death in 1273, so it shows how later generations imagined the poet's home city. Its calligraphy also reminds students that Persian manuscript painting was a high art at the time.

Look closer

• How do the gestures and raised hands show the reaction of the crowd?
• What does the figure at the balcony window add to the story?
• Why might a later artist paint an earlier event, and what might they have changed?