Shahnama Project : Shahnama (Rashida)

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>This heavily illustrated manuscript (sometimes referred to as the Rashida ms, due to the initial belief that the calligrapher was 'Abd al-Rashid Dailami) contains the text of the Shahnama down to the end of the reign of Kay Khusrau. It includes a copy of the Barzunama, inserted as normal after the story of Bizhan and Manizha. This is also heavily illustrated (12 miniatures).</p><p>Initial investigation and photography by Amin Mahdavi.</p><p>See the detailed description of the manuscript and its illustrations by S.A. Sharifzadeh, Namvarnama, Tehran, 1370 sh./1991, pp. 110-32.</p><p>Note the similarity of the illustrations to those in the Windsor Shahnama of 1058/1648, the illustrations of which were done by Malik Husain Isfahani, Muhammad Yusuf, Muhammad Qasim and Pir Muhammad al-Hafiz. The same artists probably had a share in the paintings in the 'Rashida' manuscript.Several paintings illustrated in Semsar, Gulistan Palace Library, pp. 111-127, including the fine double-page illuminated start of the Preface (pp. 112-113), the opening of the poem (p. 114), and the binding (p. 127). Some additional images are presented in the updated edition of this work, by Mohammad-Hassan Semsar, with Fatemeh Sara'ian, Kakh-i Gulistan, Tehran: Zarrin-o-Simin, 1398/2019, pp. 174-183. See also Baqir Najafi, Shahnama-ha-yi Iran, 1997, pp. 497-500 and pls. .</p></p>