Tabriz, Iran
circa 1530
ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; margins heavily sprinkled with gold
text copied in a superior nasta‘liq script, with 22 lines to the page, arranged in 4 columns, two to a couplet; headings (on the recto) in riqa‘
47.2 x 32cm (folio); 26.8 x 17cm (written surface, recto); 26.7 x 21.2cm (illustration, verso)
Rustam and the Seven Warriors head to the hunting ground of Afrasiyab in Turan, with their troops, hounds, flacons and gear. After a week of hunting, birds and beasts lay everywhere in heaps, some killed, some wounded.
[For the Shahnamah of Shah Tahmasp, see MSS 1030]
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.305, p.267.