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Lot Essay
The paintings in this manuscript include:
1. The court of Gayumarth
2. The murder of Iraj
3. The Simurgh bids farewell to Zal
4. Rakhsh fights a lion while Rustam sleeps
5. Kayka’us airborn
6. Rustam and Suhrab
7. The trial of Siyavush
8. Kay Khusraw crosses the Oxus with Farangis and Giv
9. Rustam shoots Ashkabus
10. Rustam rescues Bizhan from the pit
11. Bizhan kills Human
12. Rustam shoots Isfandiyar in the eyes
13. The dying Rustam shoots Shaghad
14. Azar Barzin killing a dragon in revenge for the death of Faramarz, from the Bahmannama (from the Shiraz manuscript)
15. Ardavan is brought before Ardashir (from the Shiraz manuscript)
16. Bahram Gur gains the crown by killing the two lions (from the Shiraz manuscript)
This unusual manuscript fits neatly into a group discussed at length, primarily by Karin Rührdanz (‘About a Group of Truncated Shahnamas: A Case Study in the Commercial Production of Illustrated Manuscripts in the Second Part of the Sixteenth Century’, Muqarnas XIV, Leiden, 1997, pp.118-134). They all date to the late 16th or early 17th century and are often referred to as the ‘truncated Shahnamas’ as they present a reduced version of Firdawsi’s text - usually omitting the so-called historical part of the Shahnama and instead focusing on an expanded version of the legendary part of the epic, finishing either with the reign of Queen Humay or with the story of Iskandar, as here. Research suggests the Ottoman Empire as the place of origin for this peculiar group of Shahnamas.
For a recently published example of one of these Shahnamas see Will Kwiatkowski, The Eckstein Shahnama. An Ottoman Book of Kings, London, n.d. In his discussion of that particular version, Kwiatkowski cites various factors that support an Ottoman origin. The first is that the manuscript seems to present a peculiarly Ottoman version of Iranian history, which may have had particular resonance in the context of the Ottoman-Safavid war. At the time when the Eckstein Qur’an was copied, the Ottoman Empire was trying to expand its eastern frontier at the expense of the Safavids. It was also a period in which Iranian artistic traditions, particularly in the art of the book, were exerting strong influence on work of the Ottoman Empire.
As on the Eckstein manuscript, more than one artist was certainly involved in the production of ours. Some of the paintings display features common to the late 16th century Qazvin style. Others have a more Ottoman feeling for instance the paintings where the protagonists are engaged in action at the centre of the picture whilst a row of spectators looks down over the scene from the hill (Rührdanz, op.cit., p.121). There is distinct similarity between our group of manuscripts and a series of Qisas al-Anbiya’ manuscripts produced in the Ottoman Empire in the 1560s and 1570s. Rührdanz and Kwiatkowski suggest that these ‘truncated Shahnamas’ were produced in the Ottoman world but by artists familiar with the models and styles of Qazvin court paintings.
Other stylistically related Shahnamas include one in All Souls College, Oxford, dated AH 988/1580 AD (ms.288), one in the Free Library, Philadelphia dated AH 996/1588-89 AD (Lewis O.52), a third which sold Sotheby’s, London, 10 April 1989, lot 241 and a fourth, now in the Topkapi Palace Museum. The Topkapi manuscript was copied earlier, in AH 942/1535-36 AD in Bukhara, but its illustrations were added at the time of the other manuscripts.
1. The court of Gayumarth
2. The murder of Iraj
3. The Simurgh bids farewell to Zal
4. Rakhsh fights a lion while Rustam sleeps
5. Kayka’us airborn
6. Rustam and Suhrab
7. The trial of Siyavush
8. Kay Khusraw crosses the Oxus with Farangis and Giv
9. Rustam shoots Ashkabus
10. Rustam rescues Bizhan from the pit
11. Bizhan kills Human
12. Rustam shoots Isfandiyar in the eyes
13. The dying Rustam shoots Shaghad
14. Azar Barzin killing a dragon in revenge for the death of Faramarz, from the Bahmannama (from the Shiraz manuscript)
15. Ardavan is brought before Ardashir (from the Shiraz manuscript)
16. Bahram Gur gains the crown by killing the two lions (from the Shiraz manuscript)
This unusual manuscript fits neatly into a group discussed at length, primarily by Karin Rührdanz (‘About a Group of Truncated Shahnamas: A Case Study in the Commercial Production of Illustrated Manuscripts in the Second Part of the Sixteenth Century’, Muqarnas XIV, Leiden, 1997, pp.118-134). They all date to the late 16th or early 17th century and are often referred to as the ‘truncated Shahnamas’ as they present a reduced version of Firdawsi’s text - usually omitting the so-called historical part of the Shahnama and instead focusing on an expanded version of the legendary part of the epic, finishing either with the reign of Queen Humay or with the story of Iskandar, as here. Research suggests the Ottoman Empire as the place of origin for this peculiar group of Shahnamas.
For a recently published example of one of these Shahnamas see Will Kwiatkowski, The Eckstein Shahnama. An Ottoman Book of Kings, London, n.d. In his discussion of that particular version, Kwiatkowski cites various factors that support an Ottoman origin. The first is that the manuscript seems to present a peculiarly Ottoman version of Iranian history, which may have had particular resonance in the context of the Ottoman-Safavid war. At the time when the Eckstein Qur’an was copied, the Ottoman Empire was trying to expand its eastern frontier at the expense of the Safavids. It was also a period in which Iranian artistic traditions, particularly in the art of the book, were exerting strong influence on work of the Ottoman Empire.
As on the Eckstein manuscript, more than one artist was certainly involved in the production of ours. Some of the paintings display features common to the late 16th century Qazvin style. Others have a more Ottoman feeling for instance the paintings where the protagonists are engaged in action at the centre of the picture whilst a row of spectators looks down over the scene from the hill (Rührdanz, op.cit., p.121). There is distinct similarity between our group of manuscripts and a series of Qisas al-Anbiya’ manuscripts produced in the Ottoman Empire in the 1560s and 1570s. Rührdanz and Kwiatkowski suggest that these ‘truncated Shahnamas’ were produced in the Ottoman world but by artists familiar with the models and styles of Qazvin court paintings.
Other stylistically related Shahnamas include one in All Souls College, Oxford, dated AH 988/1580 AD (ms.288), one in the Free Library, Philadelphia dated AH 996/1588-89 AD (Lewis O.52), a third which sold Sotheby’s, London, 10 April 1989, lot 241 and a fourth, now in the Topkapi Palace Museum. The Topkapi manuscript was copied earlier, in AH 942/1535-36 AD in Bukhara, but its illustrations were added at the time of the other manuscripts.