Shahnama Project : Shahnama

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Link to the digitised manuscript: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10025462w.r=Smith-Lesouef%20244?rk=21459;2</p><p>The folios are bound in a Qajar lacquer binding depicting an indoors princely gathering with musicians.This is a collection of loose miniatures, containing 18 folios (1 folio, of Firdausi and the poets of Ghazna, was already missing from the Cabinet des Estampes when the microfilm was produced in April 2001). Folio 18 comes from a different ms. than the others; it is a beautiful calligraphic example. There are 2 unvans (ff.14 and 15) of refined hand, detached, cut out and mounted on cardboard.The dimension of the pages is uncertain as they have all been cut out and pasted on cardboard. The folios are not numbered in the order they would have appeared in the text. On the back of the folder in which they are kept is a Qajar lacquer painting, where 6 girls and 1 boy entertain 3 young men. The verses along the frame give the date and the place of origin: Isfahan, 1270/1854. The text in good clear nasta'liq of the medium size with slight Indian features (like very simple shaped corner-like final Ya), in Indian ink; headings in red in the same script. The paper of the original manuscript is Oriental, thin, homogeneous with slight very frequent vergueres, still rather white with a pleasant creamy tint. (F.A.).</p></p>