Shahnama Project : Shahnama

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The investigation of this interesting early Qajar ms. is not complete; a preliminary inspection was made by Ch.M. in June 2006. A proper recording of the manuscript must await pagination of the text.The binding is of thick black leather, and a shiney black leather spine, without inscription; dimensions 447 x 280 mm. The doublures are of plain brown leather. On the flysheet are notes, presumably those of Simsar, mentioning however 118 miniatures, not 119, and about 600 chapter headings (rubrics). These are written in crimson red on a lozenge of plain gold, against a field of multi-coloured floral decorations of different designs. The text block is ruled in a margin of thick gold, space, thin gold and the columns of two thin lines with the intervening space left empty. Simsar&apos;s brief account of the codex (pp. 90-91) describes the paper as &apos;of strong texture with a cafe au lait tinge and slight sheen&apos;. The paper is very thin, and has been repaired along almost all of the outside edges.</p><p>The text is in two volumes bound as one, with an illuminated title-page at the start of daftar 2 (fol. 271r). There is no preface, but f. 1v contains part of the list of kings. The poem starts on f. 2v, on a heavily illuminated carpet page. Simsar notes that Fath-&apos;Ali Shah Qajar is taken as the facial model for the heroes of the paintings; the colophon has been almost completely erased, but appears to record a royal or princely commission.The manuscript is heavily illustrated, including the whole sequence of the combats of the eleven champions (yazdah rukh) . The working images currently available were taken by Ch.M. on 8 June 2006. The folio number assigned is simply to organise the existing images in the correct order.Deep thanks to Bill Lang for his interest and encouragement and his support for the project.</p></p>