Shahnama Project : Shahnama (Big Head)

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Formerly recorded as 2005.1.62-64, 91-92 (Ir.M. 17-17/B, 60-60/A).</p><p>A collection of five detached folios from the celebrated &quot;Big Head&quot; Shahnama, produced in Gilan at the court of Karkiya Mirza 'Ali of Lahijan (r. 1478-1505). The bulk of the manuscript is housed in two collections in Istanbul, the Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi (ms. 1978) and the University Library (ms. F. 1406). It is the most prodigiously illustrated of all known Shahnamas, originally containing about 350 paintings.</p><p>The Aga Khan's collection has been exhibited and published several times; see in particular Anthony Welch, Collection of Islamic art, vol. 1, 1972, pp. 127 ff. and Sheila Canby, Princes, poets and paladins, 1998, p. 17, with colour reproductions.</p><p>The Big Head pages have been described in detail in the unpublished catalogue prepared by Moya Carey, 2002, and the manuscript has also been studied by Charles Melville, "The 'Big Head' Shahnama in Istanbul and elsewhere" (2019).</p><p>The folios have been numbered in the order they appear in the poem. The dimensions of each sheet are given in the illustration record. The dimensions recorded for the 'manuscript' in this group are those of the verso side of AKM62.</p></p>