A monumental Indian Shahnameh with 17 large scale miniatures in the text

This Shahnameh presents a rare example of early eighteenth century manuscript illustration from provincial Mughal India. This manuscript was completed during the first years of the reign of Muhammad Shah, the 13th Emperor and ruler of the Mughal Empire (r. 1719-1748), however the empire had begun to decline after the reign of Aurangzeb in 1707 and India had started to fragment into smaller kingdoms that pledged nominal allegiance to Muhammad Shah but realistically acted as independent rulers. It is likely that this manuscript would have been copied for one such ruler and that this manuscript would have been an elaborate statement of wealth and power to the province in which it belonged.

The miniatures include very unusual compositions for well known scenes of the Shahnameh. The colours are bright and vivid, with accents in both gold and silver, and are comparable in style to illustrations produced in the most Northern territories of India, possibly Kashmir. One of the most striking features of the miniatures included is the scale of the figures and paintings themselves; most of the characters portrayed have a standing height of almost 15cm and their faces alone measure circa 2 cm. A number of the paintings include flags or sections of the scenery extending into the upper or outer margins, a style typically associated with Safavid Art, and many of the central figures in the scenes have contemporary annotations on the paintings of their associated names.

Single volume, illuminated manuscript on paper, in Farsi, 268 leaves, incomplete, lacking leaves at the beginning (and possibly only one volume of the Shahnameh bound in two), 385 x 255 mm; four columns, 30 lines black nasta'liq per page, 17 large illustrations in the text heightened in gold and silver, many leaves with early (and sometimes crude) repairs to the margins, with occasional and slight loss to text, some water-staining, catch-words, some leaves and gatherings mis-bound, some smudges to ink and offsetting, contemporary seal impression to first leaf of text; nineteenth-century full tan sheep over boards, extremities scuffed and rubbed, spine a little faded.