The decoration style in Muzehhip Ruzbihan's manuscripts

The art of illumination emerged and made progress in Central Asia during the time of Uighur Turks. It has been surviving until today by coming from Uighur geography which is the under influence of China in the East to Iran, then by reaching Anatolia through Seljuks and by kneading with the art taste of Ottoman. In this process that has been going on for centuries, it has continued its development by showing differences with the desire of the artists from distinct geographies to avoid repetition, expressing themselves and looking for new, aesthetic concerns, the effects of taste and style differences. Shiraz, which was an important centre of book production in the XVI. century, has always maintained its feature of being a book production centre despite the rule of different states and various changes in rulership over the centuries. In this study, the decoration style of Ruzbihan, who was an illuminator and lived in Shiraz during the Safavid Empire in the XVI. century, was tried to be revealed by examining his book ornaments. For this purpose, five manuscripts decorated by the artist were analysed in terms of colour, composition and motif style. As a result of the study, it has been observed that Ruzbihan, who is an illuminator, calligrapher and bookbinder, reflected his versatile artist personality to his works and produced original works that could be considered innovative for the period he lived by developing a unique style. It has been concluded that this originality may arise from that Ruzbihan worked freely in his own workshop and produced his works in line with aesthetic concerns and acted without guidance or expectation of any authority. Keywords: Illumunation, Ruzbihan, Safavid, Shiraz, Book Arts, Manuscript