Great skill was needed to decorate manuscripts, and in past centuries rich patrons sponsored the best miniature painters throughout the wider Central Asian region. The earliest decorated manuscripts found date back as far as the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, but no greater artists were found than during the Timurud dynasty in 15th century Herat, during the reign of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (from 1470). Under his patronage the art flourished. The miniature artist Kamal al Din Behzad (1450?-1535), claimed by both Afghanistan and Iran, is regarded as the master of this art form. The meticulous attention to detail that characterised earlier forms of miniature painting was maintained, but the subject matter was humanised to reflect real life. The staid, mannered poses of the past changed and tea sellers, chatting soldiers and old men huddled in shawls can be seen in his work. Byron, travelling through Central Asia in the early 20th century, noted that because the railways carrying new styles by-passed Herat, the Behzad style of miniature painting had remained unchanged.

During the 1980s and 1990s training in miniature painting was sponsored in the refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran and works flooded the markets along the borders to Afghanistan. Today the Afghan Traditional Arts Training School - Ghulam Mohammad Maimanagi in Kabul and the Behzad High School in Herat are teaching this ancient art. Both need supplies and new, larger premises. The large number of students who have applied to study in their free time is encouraging but there are not enough rooms and ‘classrooms under the sky’ are also filled. Students practice the art on newsprint and the paintings themselves are often done on both sides of a precious piece of canvas.