Miniature Painting or Miniator is a bright and pure handmade oil painting on paper, whether a book illustration or more luxuriously on a piece of camel bone.
The bright and pure colouring of the Persian miniature is one of its most striking features. The workshop tradition and division of labour within both an individual miniature and a book, as described above, distinguish the attribution of paintings. Because of the nature of the works, literary and historical references to artists, even if they are relied upon, usually do not enable specific paintings to be identified, though there are exceptions.