The book has several "layers", the most basic of them being the miniaturists and the Islamic culture. It explores the relationship between art and religion as espoused by Islam, where art is created not for our enjoyment, but for the sole purpose of exalting allah. Each painting must be given perfection in the way allah perceives it, instead of the way a human being would perceive it. Thus a dog, being a lowly animal, must always be shown smaller than the sultan, who is God's representative on earth. The main plot of the story winds around the deep seated desire of Enishte Effendi to have a western style painting done by his master painters. He thus persuades them to work for them by the night, in secret, at their homes, or with him. But before the completion of the book he is planning, one of his miniaturists start to harbour suspicions about what he is drawing for the Enishte. He goes to one of the other three, and confides his fears in him, only to find that the very man he went to for comfort was planning his murder so that the paintings could be completed, without a murmer from anyone.
Even the Enishte is not able to find out which one his three miniaturists commited the murder, and it falls to Black and Master Osman to find out who committed the crime, given that the motive was to preserve his "style". The answer to this lies in the style of the miniaturists, each of whom consider themselves to be the best since Bihzad. Thus Black and Master Osman together pore over all the depictions they can find and finally find out who made that painting. Meanwhile, poor Enishte is murdered, presumably by the same person, and possibly because the murderer perceived him as the next threat to his style.
At another level, the story explores the realtionship between God and man as perceived by Islam. God, as the supreme creater, is perfect in all his works, and man, being merely one his creations, must never try to achieve the level of perfection that God shows in his creation. Thus each painting must glorify Allah, and it must only bring forth the awe and beauty one feels on looking upon his creations, instead of aspiring to look like the creation itself. Thus paintings are drawn as seen by the eyes of Allah, and not as they really appear, with the Sultan given the maximum importance in any painting, and dogs given the least importance.
The book also gives one an insight into the plights of the miniaturists, as they try to come to terms with the fact that the period of their dominance is now ending, as must all things, and that the paintings for which they dedicated their lives, their sight, their very being, would vanish completely and would be forgotten, never to be remembered again in the time to come. However, their fear of being turned into outcastes who depicted Allah's creations in a sacriligious manner is about as great as their desire to be remembered for their own style, so each of them reconciles to the fate that awaits them and satisfies himself with other pursuits. (One, in gold, another, in his wife, the third in and the fourth one who gives in to neither of these pleasures goes on to commit the murdrers.)
The sense of mystery prevails till the end, and the identity of the murderer is made known only at the end of the book. So we wait through the endless deptictions of masterly paintings created by Bihzad and through the scholarly and erudite arguments of the miniaturists about their style and a hundred other details before finding out who committed the murder.
Some of the passages in the book are particularly moving, like the one where Master Osman blinds himself with the same needle that the great Bihzad used, and also the one where Enishte describes his experience of being murdered. This is the only book I have read in which a narrator describes himself being murdered. (It gives new insight into the act of murder itself!).
Highly recommended .. a great read, though it is tiresome in parts.
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