The Epic Story of Shahnama and some other Stories

 This rare Shahnama manuscript, copied in India in a regional Indian provincial style, demonstrates the popularity of the epic throughout South Asia as well as in the central Persian lands. The manuscript has highly decorated illuminated chapter and section openings in gold ink and numerous illustrations and miniature paintings that fuse Persian, Mughal Indian, regional Indian, as well as European styles. Although the manuscript is not dated, the work reflects a late-seventeenth-century to early-eighteenth-century aesthetic prevalent in India. The text is written in the Persian Nastaliq calligraphy style.

 The Shahnameh, the seminal Persian literary work, is based primarily on a prose translation of an earlier Pahlavi work, known as the Xvatāynamāk (Book of Kings), from the pre-Islamic Sassanid era (224–651). The poet Daqiqi (942–980), a contemporary of the poet Ferdowsi (940–1020), began rendering the Shahnameh In verse, and, in turn, Ferdowsi included many of Daqiqi’s couplets in his version of the Shahnameh. Although the manuscript’s place of publication is not noted, it is in an Iranian style with text written in the Persian Nastaliq calligraphic style, one of the oldest and most prized styles of Persian calligraphy used for manuscripts. The displayed page showcases a painting of an epic battle scene.

 As communication and contact between Zoroastrian communities in Iran and India expanded throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Indian Zoroastrian Parsi community began reconnecting to their ancestral homeland in Iran. Produced in the Iranian Qajar style, characterized by a more realistic treatment of portraiture, this twentieth-century Shahnameh includes an additional chapter introducing the notables of the Indian Parsi community to Persian speakers. Illustrated here is the court of Sultan Mahmud, to whom the Shahnameh was dedicated, surrounded by notable Persian poets including Ferdowsi.

Ferdowsi. منتخب شاهنامۀ ابو القاسم فردوسى (Selections from the Shahnameh). Manuscript copied in Iran, 1618. Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress. This manuscript’s place of publication is not noted, it is in an Iranian style with text written in the Persian Nasta‘liq calligraphic style, one of the oldest and most prized styles of Persian calligraphy used for manuscripts. The displayed page showcases a painting of an epic battle scene.

 Ferdowsi. شاهنامۀ حکيم ابو القاسم فردوسى طوسى (Shahnameh). Bombay, 1913. A lithographic copy of the Shahnameh commissioned by the Indian Zoroastrian Parsi community and given to the Library of Congress as a gift by the Mehrizi Family. Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.

 Ferdowsi. شاهنامۀ حکيم ابو القاسم فردوسى طوسى (Shahnameh). Bombay, 1913. A lithographic copy of the Shahnameh commissioned by the Indian Zoroastrian Parsi community and given to the Library of Congress as a gift by the Mehrizi Family. Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.

 Niẓāmī Ganjavī (The Quinary of Niẓāmī Ganjavī). Kashmir, India, 1835. Manuscript. Page 2. Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress. This page of a Kashmiri-Indian copy of a “Khamsah,” illustrates tales from the “Haft Paykar” (Seven Beauties) and depicts the love interest of the hero Bahram Gur

 Selections of Classical Persian Poetry. Iran, late eighteenth–early nineteenth century. Manuscript. Page 2. Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.

 The fire-ordeal of Siyavush. From Firdawsi Shahnamah, Shiraz Safavid style, dating from the 16th century 

 Fath ʻAli Shah Qajar with two princes in attendance, receiving Mirza Riza Quli Munshi al-Mamalik. From the Shahanshah namah by Fath ʻAli Khan Saba. Qajar, dated 1225/1810 

 The dragon outside its mountain cave explaining to Darab that it had been sent by God as His servant on earth. Artist: Narayan, c.1580-85. From the Darabnamah, a prose romance written in the 12th century by Abu Tahir Tarsusi

 The well known story of the hare who tricks the lion into drowning by attacking his own reflection in the well. From Naṣr Allāh Munshī's Kalīlah va Dimnah dated 707/1307-8 

16The jackal Dimnah tricks the ox Shanzah into believing that his former friend the lion had turned against him, and was intending to eat him. From Husayn Va'iz Kashifi’s Anvar-i Suhayli. Mughal, 1610-11