Nan va Halva (Breads and Sweets). Author: Muhammad Baha' al-Din al-'Amili (1547-1620). Dimensions: H. 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm)W. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm). Date: ca. 1690.The text of this book is a series of moralizing poems on the merits of the ascetic life, three of which are illustrated. The painting illustrates the parable of a recluse who accepts bread from an infidel (depicted here as the English monarch Charles II) and is chided by a dog. The beautiful birds in the margin of the page compete for attention with the witty illustration.Other paintings include one which accompanies a poem on the regrets of a life spent learning useless information; the artist has shown a school where only the sciences are taught, its teachers dozing, meditating and drinking. Another painting accompanies a poem valorizing patience--a recluse, shown praying in the wilderness, does not receive his customary daily bread; when he accepts food offered by an infidel, he is scolded by a dog for not having waiting fo