Shahnama Project : Shahnama

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Formerly (in Geneva) identified as 2005.1.274 (Ms 22).</p><p>This manuscript was purchased by Sir Thomas Philipps in 1828. The volume has two double-page illuminations introducing the Preface and the start of the poem, and a double-page Frontispiece. All but two of the 29 paintings are signed by Mu'in Musavvir, some dated 1065/1655 and some 1067/1657 - that is, they were completed after the text was copied in 1064/1654 (end of daftar 1).</p><p>The second volume of this Shahnama is now part of the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Per. 270), which contains an additional twenty-one illustrations, all of them signed by Mu'in and one of them bearing the date Muharram 1066 (November 1655). Mu'in was the most celebrated student of the Safavid master Rida and spent most of his life in Isfahan.</p><p>Binding: early 19th c. Indian leather.</p><p>For a description, see Anthony Welch, Collection of Islamic Art, vol. IV (1978), pp. 89-91; See also, Sotheby's sale, London, 25 November 1968, lot 179, and the unpublished catalogue by Moya Carey, vol.II, pp. 467-71. .</p><p>Some folios from this ms. are accessible on the Aga Khan Museum website.</p></p>