This monumental Safavid copy of the celebrated Shahnama epic is bound in a gleaming gilded-leather bookbinding adorned with a paintinglike landscape containing animal and birds. The figural decoration extends into the cartouches surrounding the central scene, which enclose leonine masks and flying waterbirds. The weight of the many pages within the binding has worn down the surface decoration of the main panel, but the envelope flap on the right clearly depicts wild boar, deer, cranes, fish, and a variety of foliage.
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This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Binding, front
Binding, back
Folio 1v
Folio 22v
Folio 106r
Folio 116r
Folio 145r
Folio 208r
Folio 250v
Folio 578a: The Death of Alexander
Folio 306r
Folio 351r
Folio 375r
Folio 571r
Folio 4v
Folio 32v
Folio 52r
Folio 283r
Folio 284r
Folio 320r
Folio 419v
Folio 449r
Folio 486r
Folio 502v
Folio 512r
Folio 538r
Folio 550r
Folio 69v
Folio 80r
Inner binding, front
Inner binding, back
Folio 579r
Folio 15v
Folio 168r
Folio 220r
Artwork Details
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Title:Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi
Author:Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus)
Date:1475–1675
Geography:Attributed to Iran, Tabriz
Medium:Leather; tooled and gilded; ink on paper
Dimensions:H. 18 3/8 in. (46.7 cm) W. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Gift of Alexander Smith Cochran, 1913
Accession Number:13.228.14
Alexander Smith Cochran, Yonkers, NY (until 1913; gifted to MMA)
de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Exhibition of Islamic Art," February 24, 1937–March 22, 1937, no. 7.
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Perfect Page: The Art of Embellishment in Islamic Book Design," May 17–August 18, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nature of Islamic Ornament, Part IV: Figural Representation," September 16, 1999–January 30, 2000, no catalogue.
Paris. Institut du Monde Arabe. "The Golden Age of Islamic Sciences," October 25, 2005–March 19, 2006, no. 61.
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Making of a Collection," October 24, 2011–February 26, 2012, no catalogue.
Princeton. Princeton University Art Museum. "Princeton's Great Persian Book of Kings: Myths, Legends and History," October 5, 2015–January 24, 2016, not in catalogue.
Jackson, A. V. Williams, and A. Yohannan. Catalogue of the Collection of Persian Manuscripts, Including also some Turkish and Arabic, Presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by Alexander Smith Cochran. Columbia University Indo Iranian Series, vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1912. no. 5, pp. 38–44.
Valentiner, William Reinhold. "The Cochran Collection of Persian Manuscripts." Museum of Metropolitan Art Bulletin, old series, vol. 8 (1913). pp. 80–86.
Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Mohammedan Decorative Arts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1930. p. 75, ill. fig. 33 (b/w).
Aga-Oglu, Mehmet. "M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, February 24 to March 22, 1937." In Exhibition of Islamic Art. San Francisco, 1937. no. 7, p. 24, ill. pl. 7 (b/w), cover and flap of binding.
Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 84, ill. fig. 50 (b/w).
Ruhrdanz, Karin. "About a Group of Truncated Shahnamas: A Case Study in the Commercial Production of Illustrated Manuscripts in the Second Part of the Sixteenth Century." Muqarnas vol. 14 (1997). p. 128, ill. fig. 14 (b/w), fol. 502b: The Wounded Faramurz Captured by Bahman.
Savage-Smith, Emilie, ed. Magic and Divination in Early Islam. The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, vol. 42. Aldershot, Hants, Great Britain; Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate, 2004.
L'Age d'Or des Sciences Arabes. Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 2005. no. 61, p. 125, ill. fig. 61 (color), folio 578a, The Death of Alexandre.
Simpson, Marianna. "The Peck Shahnama." In Princeton's Great Persian Book of Kings. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2015. p. 13.
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus)
15th century
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