Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648

Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648

$9,000.00
$9,000.00

Title: A Suite of Seven Folios with Large Detailed Miniatures from an Early Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, Likely Safavid Iran. Circa 1620-1650, One Leaf With Later Additions. Two Details Court Scenes, one miniature of the murder of Iraj, three from the Tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab, including Sohrab’s Death, and Kay Khosrow having slain Shideh. Persian Illuminated Manuscripts on Paper. With Heavy Similarities to the Great Windsor Shahnameh of 1648
Author: Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi; Copied by Mohammed Moomen Bilande
Artist: Mohammed Schafi Ebn; Mohammed Messih Mossawar
Condition: Good

An early 17th century suite of seven folios, each containing a large, heavily detailed half-page miniature from an early copy of the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, likely produced in Safavid Iran, written in Arabic.

Also known as The Book of Kings, or شاهنامه, the work is a tremendous epic poem written by famed Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. There are roughly 50,000 distichs or couplets, making it one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author.

The tales stem from all points of Persia’s mythological and historic pasts, from the mythical age of such figures such as Tahmuras, Jamshid, Zahhak and more, to the Heroic age (about two thirds are devoted to this), going from Manuchehr's reign until the conquest of Alexander the Great (referred to as Iskander in this work). Lastly there are also some historical accounts, up to the seventh century, with the fall of the Sassanids, and Arab conquest of Persia, albeit narrated in a romanticized fashion.

The miniatures are beautifully painted in gouache and now faded gold illumination, the text being written in a four-column format of nasta‘liq script written horizontally in black ink, and there are three illuminated headings with the title (in red) of the chapter. All the borders are nicely illuminated as well, each of the columns to the recto separated in red and blue as well.

As one of the miniatures has later additions added on (the Murder of Iraj), in a sharp contrast from the typically high level of detail in early Safavid miniature work, there is a question raised on it was done to simply cover up any old damage, or, whether these are in fact miniatures produced during 18th century Qajar Iran and simply produced in the style of early Safavid manuscripts. Having spoken to several colleagues, I have received mixed answers and present my information as such.

Of these seven miniatures, two are of highly detailed court scenes. Next is regarding the sons of legendary king Fereydun, where Salm and Tur murder their brother Iraj. Years later Iraj’s grandson Manuchehr avenges his grandfather’s death by killing both Salm and Tur. Of note are three beautiful miniatures from the tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab, the first being of Rostam Capturing the Horse Rakhsh, Rostam Murdering his Son Sohrab, and the final of Rostam Riding a Horse, from a scene I have yet to identify. The final miniature is that of the legendary king Kay Khosrow having slain Shideh in the Great Kay Khosrow War.

A prior owner appears to have conducted some extensive research and translation work, being able to identify the scribe, one Mohammed Moomen Bilande, as well as two artists, being Mohammed Schafi Ebn, Mohammed Messih Mossawar. The signatures of the scribe and illuminators can be seen within the miniatures and margins of the leaves. That small cataloger note is included with the lot.

Many of the miniatures bear heavy similarities to the famed Windsor Shahnameh of 1648 and others, especially with the depiction of Rostam in particular, which does help to establish the dating.

The leaves are written in a 26-line format.

Seven illuminated manuscript leaves on paper, 37.6 x 25.4 cm

These leaves are in good shape, with some staining and wear to the leaves, more to the edges. All of the leaves have undergone various degrees of restoration work, the most notable of which being one fully supplemented corner to a leaf, though with minimal text loss replaced by hand. One or two words have also worn away, again replaced by hand. Two faces to one miniature are heavily worn away, and the miniatures have all suffered some degree of wear and a bit of cracking to the paint. As a 20th century owner took the annoying liberty of once framing the leaves to cardboard mats, there are still remnants of old tape marks to the rear.