Book of Kings (Shāhnāma) by Firdausi (d. 1020), illustrated by Mu`īn Muṣavvir

Title:: Book of Kings (Shāhnāma) by Firdausi (d. 1020), illustrated by Mu`īn Muṣavvir

Material:: Paper (material) Pigment (material) Ink (material) Gold Leather (material)

Description:: Book of Kings (Shāhnāma) by Abū al-Qāsim Firdausi (d. 1020), illustrated by Mu`īn Muṣavvir. This is the second volume of a two-volume Shahnama. The first volume, now in the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, is dated Jumada II 1064H (April 1654), with four of its thirty-three paintings dated 1065H or 1067H (1654-1657). Volume two (CB Per 270) has no full date recorded at the end of the text, but the last of its twenty-two paintings (on fol. 223r) is dated Muhammad 1066H (November 1655). These dates allow a reconstruction of how the set was produced: the text was copied first, and the fifty-five paintings followed - over a three year period. Codex, ink, colours and gold on paper, modern gilded red leather binding, 223 folios (a further 12 folios are detached and mounted separately), Persian text in nasta`liq script, with illuminated double page frontispiece (fols. 1v-2r), framed rubrics throughout and 12 paintings (fols. 31v, 44r, 48r, 83v, 89v, 95r, 110v, 175r, 186v, 197v, 216r, 223r), folios remargined (fols. 1-21), volume two of the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi, all paintings signed Mu'in Musavvir, colophon (fol. 232r) almost fully erased leaving only the month "Jumada II" in red, Isfahan, Iran, final painting (fol. 223r) dated Muharram 1066H, November 1655.

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