Folio from a Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi (died 1020); recto: text and illustration: Rustam rescues Bijan from the well; verso: text

Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi; text: Persian in black and red naskh script; illustration and text: Rustam rescues Bijan from the well, 6 columns, 21 lines; reverse: text, 6 columns, 30 lines; one of a group of 7 folios.
Border: The text and the painting have been remargined and mounted on to another paper.

Historical period(s): Inju dynasty, Mongol period, February 1341 (Ramadan 741 A.H.)

Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Dimensions: H x W: 14.8 x 23.4 cm (5 13/16 x 9 3/16 in)

Geography: Iran, Shiraz

Credit Line: Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

Accession Number: F1945.7

On View Location: Currently not on view

Classification(s): Manuscript

Type: Detached manuscript folio

Keywords: Afrasiyab, Bijan, Inju dynasty (1335 - 1357), Iran, Mongol period (1220 - 1380), Rustam, Shahnama, WWII-era provenance

Provenance

To 1945
Dikran G. Kelekian (1868-1951), Cairo, Egypt, Paris, France, and New York to 1945 [1]

From 1945
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Dikran G. Kelekian, New York, in 1945 [2]

Notes:

[1] See Freer Gallery or Art Purchase List after 1920, Collections Management Office.

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s): Dikran Garabed Kelekian 1868 - 1951

Description: Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi; text: Persian in black and red naskh script; illustration and text: Rustam rescues Bijan from the well, 6 columns, 21 lines; reverse: text, 6 columns, 30 lines; one of a group of 7 folios.
Border: The text and the painting have been remargined and mounted on to another paper.

Label: The story of the Persian hero Bizhan and the Turanian princess Manizha, the daughter of Afrasiyab, is a rare romantic interlude in the feuds between Iran and Turan in the Shahnama (Book of kings), the Persian national epic. When the Turanian tyrant Afrasiyab finds out about his daughter's love for Bizhan, he captures the youth and imprisons him in a well. This fourteenth-century illustration depicts the final episode in the romance, when Rustam comes to Bizhan's aid. According to Firdawsi, when Rustam's companions are unable to move the rock covering the well, "With a prayer to the creator to be granted strength, he [Rustam] stretched out his hand and without a moment's delay lifted the boulder, which he threw into the forest in the land of China, thus causing the whole surface of the earth to quake."

Published References