English: Razi playing a trick to cure the Samanid King, Folio from a manuscript of Nigaristan

Accession Number:AKM272.f46v

Creator:Author: Ahmad b. Muhammad Ghaffari, Persian, died 1567 Scribe: Ahmad al-Shirazi

Place:Iran, Shiraz (probably)

Dimensions:38.7 cm × 25 cm × 6.4 cm

Date:1573-74 CE/980 AH/AH 980

Materials and Technique:Ink, opaque watercolour, and gold on paper

The miniature painting "Razi playing a trick to cure the Samanid King" is from an intact manuscript of Kitab-i Nigaristan, a collection of anecdotes and historical incidents written in prose by the historian and scholar Ahmad Muhammad Ghaffari (1504–1567/68) of Kashan in 1551–2. This illustrated manuscript, dated 1573, was probably produced in a Shiraz workshop.

The miniature painting shows two bath scenes stacked on top of each other. Each scene is divided into three segments, with two narrow segments showing the building’s façade. The main action takes place in the lower bath scene. It illustrates an anecdote about the Samanid king Mansur ibn Nuh (r. 961–76), who suffered from a chronic pain in the joints that made it impossible to move. When his illness is declared uncurable by the court doctors, Muhammad Zakariyya Razi is called to see him. Razi (854–925)—sometimes known by his Latinized name Rhazes or Rasis—was a Persian physician, alchemist, and philosopher also remembered for his writings on logic, astronomy, and　grammar. In this tale, Razi recommends the king take a warm bath and stay there for a while. He then enters the king’s bathroom, swearing and cursing and holding aloft an unsheathed sword. Frightened and ready to defend himself, King Mansur ibn Nuh is suddenly able to stand up again. The shock has caused the poisonous substance to flow from his joints, and he is cured.

This anecdote belongs to a genre known as nadira, which means "a strange event or happening." Within this genre, anecdotes about oddities and miracles refer to a historical or literary source and are narrated within a historical context. These strange events and miracles occur to rulers, scholars, viziers, and ordinary people in Iranian history from the introduction of Islam to the time of the Safavids (1501–1677). They offer an idealized version of history and often contain a warning or moral lesson. Ghaffari, as a historian, has produced the Nigaristan in such a way that the narratives are carefully sourced, but the content is mostly an idealized version of the history and is told for the benefit of the ruler.

Depictions of public Hammams (bathhouses) became popular in the first half of the 16th century in Shiraz. Many illustrations of famous texts such as the Shahnameh, Zafarnama, and the works of Jami and Saʿdi contain a bathhouse scene. They follow the same formula of illustrating a tiled room, often with a water fountain in the middle of the room and niches in the walls.