Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād
Persian artist (1450–1535)
Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād (c. 1455/1460 – 1535), also known as Kamal al-din Bihzad or Kamaleddin Behzād (Persian: کمالالدین بهزاد), was a Persian painter and head of the royal ateliers in Herat and Tabriz during the late Timurid and early Safavid eras. He is regarded as marking the highpoint of the great tradition of Islamic miniature painting. He was well known for his very prominent role as kitābdār (the chairman of a library) in the Herat Academy as well as his position in the Royal Library in the city of Herat. His art is unique in that it includes the common geometric attributes of Persian painting, while also inserting his own style, such as vast empty spaces to which the subject of the painting dances around. His art includes masterful use of value and individuality of character, with one of his most famous pieces being "The Seduction of Yusuf" from Sa'di's Bustan of 1488. Behzād's fame and renown in his lifetime inspired many during, and after, his life to copy his style and works due to the wide praise they received. Due to the great number of copies and difficulty with tracing origin of works, proper attribution remains a subject of much research.
Biography
Behzād's exact year of birth is unknown, and according to different sources, it varies from 1455 to 1460. He was born and lived most of his life in Herat, a city in modern-day western Afghanistan and an important center of trade and the Timurid Empire's cultural and economic capital.
“Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād” enters the record as persian artist (1450–1535). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kamāl, ud-Dīn and Behzād can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kamāl, ud-Dīn and Behzād provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q334875. VIAF identifies the subject as 96545639. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1455, 1460, 1535 and 1488.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.