Shahnama Project : Shahnama

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The manuscript consists of 663 folios, with 21 Indian miniatures and 15 added later in Persia; the original manuscript was never completed, some of the spaces left for pictures being filled in later in Iran and others still left blank. Manuscript In 17 has 299 folios and a further 6, unnumbered are in a folder numbered 17A. A further 258 folios without illustration, acquired later, are catalogues as manuscript In 40. The manuscript is much disorganized and the leaves often in a random order. Linda Leach (II, pp. 564-67) catalogues only the Indian paintings; she also identifies several additional folios from this MS, which have come to light in other collections.</p><p>The text is unusually arranged in two columns of text, with a third in the margins.The volume seems to cover only the second part of the epic, from the reign of Luhrasp.</p><p>Initial investigation by Amin Mahdavi.</p><p>An image from In 17A is digitised: https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/In_17A/4/LOG_0000/</p></p>