Shahnama Project : Shahnama (Abbas I)

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>These folios are a fragment of the uncompleted Shahnama made for Shah 'Abbas I (reg. 1587-1629), who quickly reassembled the royal atelier early in his reign. It is one of the finest of a series of royal commissions of the Shahnama.Now only consisting of 21 folios, the ms includes a fine illuminated unvan, signed by Zain al-Abidin Tabrizi, which is kept in a leather binder together with the text folios.The folios with miniatures are housed in glass mounts. The paintings are generally ascribed to the years 1587-97, see esp. A. Welch, Artists for the Shah, Newhaven & London, 1976. In 1676, Muhammad Zaman added two miniatures and touched up one or two others.</p><p>Brief examination of some of the pages and their versos in the CBL exhibition, March 2011, suggested 25 lines pp. not 24 (e.g. 277-5a). Also exhbited in the exhibition 'Meeting in Isfahan' in February to August 2022,</p><p>BibliographyMinovi et al.B.W. Robinson, Persian miniature painting from collections in the British Isles, London, 1967, p. 65Sheila R. Canby, The golden age of Persian art, 1501-1722, London, 1999, p. 105</p></p>