CITY PLANS IN MINIATURE
But what interests us here are Nasûh’s topographical miniatures. Although some of his works include animals such as bird and rabbits, humans are never depicted. In his city miniatures, this master-artist created a spanking new genre using his inimitable technique and method. So fine is his work that it is possible to pick out individual buildings and to examine the natural environment and plant cover in his miniatures. Depicting his subjects from a bird’s eye view, at the same time he also represented them frontally as in a picture.
The most important of his four historic volumes of miniatures is that of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent’s first Iran-Iraq campaign in 1534-35. As well as illustrating how the Ottoman army marched from Istanbul to Baghdad and then Tabriz and how it returned via Aleppo and Eskisehir, he also includes all the cities they passed along the way. The Library of Istanbul University houses the sole copy of this matchless
work today.