Persian illumination

Tazhib means painting decorations patterns with gold, and is an old Iranian art.
This art began about 2000 years ago with simple patterns of flowers and leaves.
It was originally used to decorate buildings and pottery.
After occupation Iran and Islam was introduced to Iran,, the Persian artists worked hard on calligraphy and painting both to bring their art to the court’s attention.
The court at that time did not accept realistic painting so the artists had to decorated with minimal and symbolic motifs and patterns matching with calligraphy. Over time, the patterns became more and more luxurious and were mainly used to decorate holy book called the Koran, poetry collections and Persian calligraphy. We can say this art and its patterns got spread into the Islam world through Quran.