The splendours of the Mughal court in the late sixteenth century are reflected in the Emperor Akbar's Khamsa of Nizami, a manuscript superbly illustrated in sensuous colour and fine detail, with drama, pathos and wit. The complete range of the illustrations is reproduced here for the first time, together with an abridgement of the stories illustrated, and commentaries on individual pictures. The dazzling designs of non-figurative illumination are also included.

The Emperor Akbar was the third member of the Mughal dynasty to rule in northern India, his reign of 1556-1605 encompassing the period of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Akbar was a patron of manuscripts on a prodigious scale. His court studio employed the finest calligraphers to copy manuscripts, and the finest painters and illuminators to decorate them.

The Khamsa, or 'Quintet', is a five-part work in verse by the twelfth-century Persian poet Nizami; its stories are among the most famous in Persian literature. Down the centuries, numerous rulers and people of culture in the Islamic world have found it indispensable to own a beautiful copy of the Khamsa.