Annual grant of the islamic manuscript association

The manuscript Vat.Ar. 368 is an unicum. It is the only illustrated manuscript of the Western lands of the Dar al-Islam. Until recently it was also the only manuscript telling the story of Bayad and Riyad. Two more manuscripts have since been discovered, but they record a different version of the same tale, and the Vatican manuscript remains the oldest and the only one with miniatures. My research aims at investigating the historical and cultural circumstances that made possible the production of such an unicum, putting it in a coherent perspective, considering the literary and the intellectual context.