Khalili Collection of Islamic Art in the context of "Jami' al-tawarikh"

The Khalili Collections are eight distinct art collections assembled by Nasser D. Khalili over five decades. Together, the collections include some 35,000 works of art, and each is considered among the most important in its field.

Among these are the largest private collection of Islamic art, with 26,000 objects. A separate collection includes around 5,000 objects relating to the Hajj, spanning from the 7th century AD to the present day. From Japan, there are 2,200 pieces of Meiji era decorative art and another collection of more than 450 kimono, covering a 300-year period. The most comprehensive private collection of enamels, with over 1,500 pieces, includes examples from China, Japan, Europe, and Islamic lands. The eight collections also include 100 flatweave textiles from southern Sweden, 150 examples of Spanish damascened metalwork (i.e. with metal inlaid into other metal), and 48 Aramaic documents from 4th century-BC Bactria. These various collections show two themes that commonly motivate private collections: collecting examples of the highest artistic merit and forming complete series.

A belt is a flexible band or strap, typically made of leather, plastic, or heavy cloth, worn around the natural waist or near it (as far down as the hips). The ends of a belt are free; and a buckle forms the belt into a loop by securing one end to another part of the belt, at or near the other end. Often, the resulting loop is smaller than the hips. Belts come in many lengths because of the variety in waist sizes, and most belts can be adjusted at the buckle to suit the wearer's waist.

The Ildegizids, Eldiguzids or Ildenizids, also known as Atabegs of Azerbaijan (اتابکان آذربایجان Atabakan-e Āzarbayjan), were an Atabegate of the Seljuk Empire, and a Sunni Muslim Turkic dynasty (started by Eldiguz of Kipchak origin), which controlled most of northwestern Persia, eastern Transcaucasia, including Arran, most of Iranian Azerbaijan, and Jibal. At their maximum extent, the territory under their control, roughly corresponds to most of north-western Iran, most of the regions of modern Azerbaijan and smaller portions in modern Armenia (southern part), Turkey (northeastern part) and Iraq (eastern part). Down to the death in war 1194 of Toghril b. Arslan, last of the Great Seljuq rulers of Iraq and Persia, the Ildenizids ruled as theoretical subordinates of the Sultans, acknowledging this dependence on their coins almost down to the end of the Seljuqs. Thereafter, they were in effect an independent dynasty, until the westward expansion of the Mongols and the Khwarazm-Shahs weakened and then brought the line to its close.

Atabeg (literally "father-lord" in Turkic) was the title conferred upon the Turkic officers who served as guardians of minor Seljuq rulers. In the political circumstances of the time, Atabegs were not only tutors and vice-regents of their princes, but also de facto rulers. At the height of Eldiguzid power, their territory stretched from Isfahan in the south to the borders of Kingdom of Georgia and Shirvan in the north. However, closer to the end of their reign amidst continuous conflicts with the Kingdom of Georgia, the Eldiguzid territory shrank to include only Azerbaijan and eastern Transcaucasia.