This tile depicts Khusraw and Shirin, the protagonists of the twelfth-century Persian romance by Nizami, meeting in a garden filled with birds, flowers, and foliage. The scene of the lovers’ encounter was frequently represented from medieval times onward, but in this version the artist updates the classic story by clothing Shirin in the tutu-like skirt popular in courtly circles in later nineteenth-century Iran. Tiles such as this one were the most widespread form of architectural decoration in Iran under the Qajars (1785–1925), adorning the walls of palaces, private residences, bazaars, and gates, where they added both color and narrative to the spaces.