Lâle Uluç completed her PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and has taught as a visiting faculty member at Boğaziçi University. Her research focuses on Persian and Ottoman arts of the book and material culture. Her publications include various articles including “Selling to the Court: Late Sixteenth Century Shiraz Manuscripts,” Muqarnas 17 (2000); “Shiraz Manuscripts during the Time of Shah ‘Abbas I,” in The Arts of Iran in Istanbul and Anatolia (2018); and “The Perusal of the Topkapı Albums: A Story of Connoisseurship,” in The Diez Albums (2016). She has also authored books including Turkman Governors, Shiraz Artisans and Ottoman Collectors: Sixteenth Century Shiraz manuscripts (2006), Impressions of Ottoman Culture in Europe (with Nurhan Atasoy) (2013); Illustrated Copies of the Works of ‘Ali Shir Nava’i in Istanbul Libraries (2020); Ottoman Safavid Relations in the Sixteenth Century and the Importance of the Nakkaşhane (2022); The Shah Tahmasp Album from the Ottoman Royal Treasury (with Bora Keskiner) (2025); and an edited book From the Yıldız Palace to the Istanbul University (2015).

“I am happy to contribute to the Conversation with an article on a richly illustrated copy of the Yusuf and Zulaikha of Abd al-Rahman Jami in Persian. It was produced towards the end of the sixteenth century during the most prolific period of luxury book production of the Safavid city of Shiraz, but was then somehow transferred to Istanbul to belong to the Ottoman imperial treasury. Even though it is now preserved at the Topkapı Museum in İstanbul and not in Rhodes, the Hafız Ahmed Ağa Library has Haliloğlu Ali’s Turkish version of the same Yusuf and Zulaikha story, which is not illustrated. The Topkapı manuscript therefore exemplifies the type of images that this story has in its illustrated versions.”

Lâle Uluç