In illustrated royal manuscripts, often the only name securely attached to a book is that of the patron. While a patron’s name provides valuable information, the dearth of other evidence sometimes leads scholars to reduce a complex work of art to the rubric of its patron’s liking. A manuscript that Shah Tahmasb of Safavid Iran copied at the age of eleven is no exception. Modern scholars’ attention to the young age of the book’s scribe has obscured the deliberate movement of power that the book engendered. In the present paper, I turn to this manuscript, a 1524-25 copy of the Timurid poet ‘Arifi’s Guy wa Chawgan, to consider two bodies of evidence. The first is the dedicatory inscription of the book, which highlights the embodied gift-giving practices in the Safavid context; the second is the book’s illustrations, which encourage a personal bond between courtiers and the shah. In doing so, I chart a social history for this manuscript, and argue that the book was instrumental in forging a new social tie between the young king and his newly appointed vizier. These findings show us that the critical reception of manuscripts in Safavid Iran was predicated on their viewers’ willingness to be shaped by the book’s lessons, which created an ecosystem of meaning that was collectively constituted by audiences, rather than singularly by the patron.