"Bahram Recovers the Crown of Rivniz", Folio 245r from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of of Abu'l Qasim Firdausi, commissioned by Shah Tahmasp

Three folios from the Shahnama of Shah Tamasp: MMA 1970.301.16, .20, and.38

These paintings come from the most profusely illustrated and one of the most beautiful versions of the Iranian national epic—the Shahnama (Book of Kings). Produced for the second Safavid shah, Tahmasp (r. 1524–76), at his capital, Tabriz, in the 1520s and 1530s, the manuscript was broken up in America in 1970 for the sake of its paintings. Fit for a king, this Shahnama was sent as a gift from Shah Tamasp to the Ottoman sultan, Selim II (r. 1566–74) in 1567 to mark his accession to the throne. This presentation was recorded in a well-known double page painting illustrating a history of Selim's reign (see fig. 6 in this volume). This remarkable work seems to have spent much of the intervening period in the Ottoman royal library in Istanbul, although its 258 paintings are today dispersed throughout the world.[1]

The text includes innumerable references to royal largesse, which could be used both to anger and to please, as well as passages giving long lists from one ruler to another.[2] Among its many illustrations, the Tamasp Shahnama also presents a number of depictions of gift giving.

Linda Komaroff in [Komaroff 2011]

Footnotes:

1. For a brief summary of this important manuscript in the context of early Safavid book art, see Thompson, John, and Sheila R. Canby, eds. Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran, 1501–1576. Milan: Skira; London: Thames and Hudson, 2003, pp. 80–84.

2. See: "Gift Giving 1." Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 10, 606. See, for example Firsausi. The Shahnama of Firdausi. Translated by A.G. Warner and Edmond Warner. London: Kegan Paul, 1905–25, vol. 6, pp. 175–76, for gifts exchanged between Sikander and the King of Yemen, and vol. 8, pp. 306–8, for a list of lavish gifts from the Byzantine "Caesar" to Khusraw Parviz.

Shah Tahmasp, Iran (until 1568; gifted to Selim II); Sultan Selim II (Turkish), Istanbul (from 1568); Sultan Selim III, Istanbul (by 1800); Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (French), Paris (by 1903–d. 1934); his son, Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris and Geneva (1934–d. 1957); his son, Baron Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild, Paris and Geneva (1957–59); [ Stiebel Ltd., New York, until 1959; sold to Houghton]; Arthur A. Houghton Jr., New York (1959–70; gifted to MMA)

Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," June 5, 2011–September 5, 2011, no. 147.

Houston. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," October 23, 2011–January 15, 2012, no. 147.

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fifty Years of Collecting Islamic Art," September 23, 2013–January 26, 2014, no catalogue.

Mohl, Jules, ed. Le Livre des Rois. Vol. I. Paris, 1876. pp. 543–46.

Migeon, Gaston. "Exposition des Arts Musulmans au Musee des Arts Decoratifs." Les Arts no. 16 (1903).

Welch, Stuart Cary. A King's Book of Kings: the Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. p. 193.

Dickson, Martin, and Stuart Cary Welch. The Houghton Shahnameh. Vol. vols. I & II. Cambridge, Mass. and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1981. vol. II, ill. pl. 148 (b/w).

Canby, Sheila R. The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp : The Persian Book of Kings. Madrid, 2011. p. 168, ill. folio 245r (color).

Komaroff, Linda, ed. "The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts." In Gifts of the Sultan. Los Angeles; New Haven and London: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011. no. 147, pp. 155, 260–61, ill. fig. 139 (color).

Canby, Sheila R. The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp : The Persian Book of Kings. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. p. 210, ill. fol. 244r, full-page color illustration.