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Shahnama Project : Shahnama

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>An early manuscript of some interest, though very worn and in poor condition and inexpertly restored. It was produced only shortly after the Ibrahim-Sultan copy and contains 11 paintings, in almost all of which the faces have been crudely overpainted, particularly the final one.</p><p>The MS was purchased on 29 August 1903 from Hannon, Watson & Co., from the fund established by Tobias Rustat in 1666/7. It was copied in 841/1437 (colophon, p. 559/f. 281r): the date 841 is added by another hand, possibly at the time of restoration, when the original colophon had to be destroyed. The date is written in a similar manner to the colophon of the St Petersburg Institute of Oriental Studies codex C 1654, f. 410v, dated Ramadan 849/December 1445, which, together with very similar stylistic peculiarities of the miniatures can support the attribution of the manuscript to the same place, Yazd, or perhaps Shiraz.</p><p>The copy was completed two years after the death of the Timurid prince Ibrahim-Sultan b. Shahrukh, while the St.Petersburg manuscript was ten years after. The last was attributed in the catalogue of the collection of the Institute of Oriental studies to a Yazd provenance, no doubt based on the publications of I.Stchoukine (I.Stchoukine, La peinture a Yazd au milieu du XV siecle, Syria, XL, 1963, 139-145; Une Khamseh de Nizami illustree a Yazd entre 1442 et 1444, Ars Asiatique, XII, 1965, pp.3-20). However, all of the several surviving manuscripts copied until 1450s seem closely descended from the style of IbrahimSultan, and therefore fall in the Shiraz cultural sphere of influence whether or not actually produced in Yazd (Swietockowski, The Persian manuscripts: Pages of perfection: Islamic paintings and calligraphy from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lugano, 1995, pp.93-105). Compare with the Teignmouth Shahnama of 1457 now in the Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan collection (Geneva, Ms 11) – the latest flowering of this Shiraz style, after which Shiraz painting evolved into the so called Turkman style – both court and commercial.</p><p>The binding is of modern brown leather, with marbled end papers.</p><p>The manuscript is incomplete, containing only the first part of the poem, up to the end of the reign of Kay Khusrau. The beginning is defective, pp. 1-2/f. 1r-v consisting of ruled sheets, left blank. The text starts on p. 3/f. 2r in the prose preface; incipit:</p><p>Imam ma'ruz kard andar vay ba dargah-i sultan... ,</p><p>which can be found in the passage of the Baysunghuri Preface, concerning prince Khur Firuz, which suggests that 7-8 ff. are missing in the beginning. The preface continues to p. 21/f. 11r and includes the satire on Sultan Mahmud on pp. 14-16/ff. 7v-8v. The poem starts on p. 22/f. 11v, incipit (normative):</p><p>ba nam-i khudavand-i jan-u khirad...,</p><p>The catchwords were written at the time of the repair of the margins, in shikasta, but some are missing and some seem to indicate missing folios (e.g. at pp. 69-70, 408-9 [just inaccurate?] and 486-7). The text differs considerably from the edition established by Khaleghi-Motlagh and others.</p><p>The codex has 281 folios (numbered as pp. 1-560), with the written surface within margins ruled in red, gold and blue. The text is written in a plain but neat nasta‘liq in Indian ink. Text headings in blue thulth witha gold floral arabesque background, to p. 516/f. 258r, thereafter in red naskh, without decoration. Pages 532/ff. 266v onwards are written in a different hand. The original calligraphy has been very skilfully matched in the restored passages of text.</p><p>The paper is Oriental, fine beige, dappled with darker stains and rather creased. In the course of restoration, the text has been pasted onto new margins of thick, glossy and creamy European (? Russian) paper. Pages 441-6/ff. 221r-223v have been rewritten on the new paper, pp. 445-6/f. 223r-v in diagonal script, to ensure the text restarts in the correct place: perhaps betraying the presence of another painting in the original copy.</p><p>The text begins under a neat blue ‘unvan (68 x 123 mm), with a faded gold scalloped central medallion inscribed with the bismillah, and a design of gold arabesques ornamented with red, blue, green and yellow floral motifs, with some infills in black.</p><p>The manuscript contains 11 miniatures (not referred to in Browne’s catalogue), quite evenly distributed throughout the text, some introduced by a few lines of diagonal text on the preceding page. (Rarely, diagonal text can also be found in places unassociated with the placement of paintings, e.g. pp. 347-8). Most of the miniatures are in a stepped format and occupy a large central position on the page. The pictures are very rubbed, and often appear to have been deliberately washed out, possibly in preparation for repainting. Some parts of several miniatures have been very crudely repainted, and the faces redrawn in pencil by an amateurish hand in 19th-century style, with handlebar moustaches and other horrible incongruities. (The same hand is possibly also responsible for the doodles on the flyleaf).</p><p>What remains of the miniatures indicates that this was a beautifully illustrated manuscript, of high quality Timurid work, now sadly spoiled. Flowers are finely painted; animals and the scenes of action are painted with vigour and lively movement. Combats are depicted under a deep blue sky, and have characteristic banners of intricate plaited design fluttering over the horizons (e.g. numbers 2, 7, 8, 10). The more static court scenes (generally under a gold sky) are less successful, sometimes rather awkwardly composed, and may indicate a second artist at work. There are some unusual scenes depicted, such as “Rustam and seven heroes in the hunting field” (no. 4, f.85v/p.170), “Kay Khusraw is leaving for Dizh-i Bahman” (no.6, f.148v/p.296), At the same time such popular subjects, like ““Rustam kills the White Div”, “Rustam kills Suhrab”, “Fire ordeal of Siyavush”, “Rustam, slaying Ashkabus and his horse”, the "Execution of Siyavush”, and several others are ignored.</p><p>Some of the paintings have an extremely unusual representation, like in the first miniature (f.17v/p.34) “Zahhak and the Div”, where the div or even Iblis is depicted as an angel with long orange wings, but with the blue face, the details of which were washed out. The subject “Akvan Div throwing Rustam into the sea” (no. 9, f.203r/p.405) is one of the most popular, but usually Rustam is shown sleeping on the rock, carried by Akvan. Here one can see Rustam having been thrown already into the waters of the sea, struggling with the sea monsters. In the scene of Afrasiyab’s execution (f..272r/p.543) it is not obvious, which one Afrasiyab actually is: none of the personages is bound or ready for execution, all figures have their arms and well dressed.</p><p>None of the paintings has previously been reproduced. (FA)</p><p>See also Swietochowski, 'The Persian manuscripts', Pages of perfection, 1995, pp.93-105.</p></p>


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