Four folios from a Mughal Shahnameh - Lot 142

Four folios from a Mughal Shahnameh Ink, pigments and gold on paper India, Mughal period, circa 1610 25.2 x 15.7 cm (largest) These four fragments (folios stripped of their margins) include part of the preface to Firdousi's Shahnameh (Book of Kings), and various episodes concerning King Faridoun and Zahak, as well as Sam and the paladin Rustam. The text, in fine nasta'liq script, is spread over four columns, with episode titles in gold ink on a blue background. Framing the text are illuminated friezes of delicate foliage (sometimes dotted with birds) on a blue and red background. These folios were set within large illuminated margins, as were the fine Mughal manuscripts of the period. A Shahnameh page with very similar characteristics and preserved polychrome illuminated margins is probably taken from the same manuscript. It is preserved at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington (inventory number S1986.351). The quality of these pages and their marginal decoration should be compared with the famous Farhang-i Jahangiri by Jamal al-din Inju, an imposing dictionary commissioned by Akbar and completed under Jahangir's patronage in 1608-1609, a dismembered manuscript whose pages are preserved at the Chester Beatty Library and the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 2013.318.a). Both manuscripts were probably made for Emperor Jahangir. Despite the fragmentary state of our folios, they are very interesting documents as far as court manuscripts of the Mughal period are concerned.