“Siege of the Urgench fortress”. Miniature from “Zafarnama” by Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi

This miniature was created by Kamol al-Din Behzad, one of the greatest masters of Islamic painting. His work became the pinnacle of the Herat school and largely determined the development of book miniatures throughout the East.
The scene illustrates an episode from the Zafarnama, the chronicle of Timur’s conquests written by Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi. It depicts the siege of Urgench, one of the most important cities of Khwarazm.
Notice the complexity of the composition. Behzad organizes the scene in vertical layers, guiding the viewer’s eye from the warriors in the foreground toward the fortress walls and rocky landscape above. This method creates spatial depth without using linear perspective.
A distinctive feature of Behzad’s style is psychological expression. Even within a battle scene, individual faces convey tension and determination, reflecting a new level of narrative realism.
This miniature demonstrates how art functioned as a medium of historical memory, shaping the visual legacy of Timur’s era as a time of political power and cultural brilliance.