Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi

Abu'l Qasim Firdausi

1475–1675 · Leather; tooled and gilded; ink on paper · Islamic Art

This monumental Safavid copy of the celebrated Shahnama epic is bound in a gleaming gilded-leather bookbinding adorned with a paintinglike landscape containing animal and birds. The figural decoration extends into the cartouches surrounding the central scene, which enclose leonine masks and flying waterbirds. The weight of the many pages within the binding has worn down the surface decoration of the main panel, but the envelope flap on the right clearly depicts wild boar, deer, cranes, fish, and a variety of foliage.

Artist

Abu'l Qasim Firdausi

Date

1475–1675

Medium

Leather; tooled and gilded; ink on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Gift of Alexander Smith Cochran, 1913