Nan va Halva (Breads and Sweets) ca. 1690 Muhammad Baha' al-Din al-'Amili The text of this book is a series of moralizing poems on the merits of the ascetic life, three of which are illustrated. This 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. Another painting illustrating this poem shows the recluse praying in the wilderness.A third painting 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. A final image accompanies a poem about hypocrisyit shows the widow Bibi Tamiz praying, although she is known to be a prostitute.. Nan va Halva (Breads and Sweets) 453673