Aqa Mirak in the context of Shah Tahmasp

The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp (Persian: شاهنامه شاه‌طهماسب) or Houghton Shahnameh is one of the most famous illustrated manuscripts of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran, and a high point in the art of the Persian miniature. It is probably the most fully illustrated manuscript of the text ever produced. When created, the manuscript contained 759 pages, 258 of which were miniatures. These miniatures were hand-painted by the artists of the imperial workshop in Tabriz under Shah Ismail I and Shah Tahmasp I. Upon its completion, the Shahnameh was gifted to the Ottoman Sultan Selim II in 1568. The page size is about 48 x 32 cm, and the text written in Nastaʿlīq script of the highest quality. The manuscript was broken up in the 1970s and the pages are now in a number of different collections around the world.

Şahkulu (Ottoman Turkish: شاه قولی; Persian: شاهقلی بغدادی Shāhqulī-i Baghdādī; died 1556) was an Ottoman painter who played a leading role in a formation of the saz style.

Saz style "in which mythical creatures derived from Chinese or Islamic sources move through an enchanted forest made up of oversized composite blossoms and feathery leaves, has parallels in the art of the Aqqoyunlu and Safavid courts at Tabriz, where Shahquli trained under a master named Aqa Mirak" (it was not the well-known painter of Tahmasp's court). According to Sam Mirza Safavi (who does not mention his emigration to Ottoman lands) Şahkulu came from Qom. His name is in a document found in Ottoman Archives among the scholars and artisans who were exiled from Tabriz to Istanbul via Amasya on 12 April 1515, the aftermath of Ottoman occupation of Tabriz after the battle of Chaldiran. The 1525-26 register of court artisans list him as the head draftsman (ressam) of the twenty-nine artists and twelve apprentices employed there, with high daily salary of twenty two akçe. He became popular with Suleiman, to whom he gave a picture of a peri, and received gifts including 2000 akçe and broaded caftans and velvets. Another register from the same year adds the note that he joined the Istanbul naqqash khana ("painter's house") in 1520–21.