The great period of the Persian miniature began when Persia was ruled by a succession of foreign dynasties, who came from the east and north. The traumatic Mongol invasion of 1219 onwards established the Ilkhanate as a branch of the Mongol Empire, and despite the huge destruction of life and property, the new court had a galvanizing effect on book painting, importing many Chinese works and probably artists to their capitals (Tabriz, Maragheh, and Soltaniyeh) with their long-established tradition of narrative painting.

Tabrīz school of miniaturists founded by the Mongol Il-Khans early in the 14th century and active through the first half of the 16th century. The style represented the first full penetration of East Asian traditions into Islamic painting, an influence that was extreme at first but then blended with the native idiom.

The early works of the Tabrīz school were characterized by light, feathery brushstrokes, gentle rather than bright Persian coloring, and an attempt to create the illusion of spatiality. Space and depth are suggested by the placement of the large number of figures on various levels, one above the other, a technique brought to Central Asia by the Mongols. The attempt to create three dimensions is highly successful, as is the combination of ceremonial symbolism and realistic detail. The existence of some mythical animals like dragons is observable in the paintings of this period, which was new in Persian paintings. In this school, bodies are drawn very tall, and silver is a a common color for water to represent it more natural.

The Tabrīz school reached its apogee just as the Il-Khans were being vanquished by the Timurids (1370–1506), the dynasty of the Turkic conqueror Timur. The school continued to be active in this period, though it was overshadowed by the workshops in Shīrāz and Herāt