Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Foiled by the Book of Kings

At the risk of becoming one of those blogs, the following illustration beautifully captures why I am not posting anything of note. I am currently reading Shah-namah for one class and Siyar al-Muluk for another. Needless to say like Rustam, they are kicking my posterior.


Abridgment of the Book of Kings (Shahnama), Rustam kills the witch who came to deceive him (the third feat), Walters Art Museum Ms. W.597, fol. 44b detail. A nineteenth-century Indian copy of an abridgment of Firdawsī's Shāhnāmah ("The Book of Kings"), composed in prose by Tavakkul Beg Ḥusaynī (fl. 11th century AH / 17th CE), for Shamshīr Khān of Ghaznīn (Ghaznī or Ghaznah - present-day Afghanistan) and entitled Tārīkh-i dilgushā-yi Shamshīrkhānī. This anonymous codex written in a coarse nastaʿlīq hand in the 13th century AH / 19th CE has 33 somewhat mediocre illustrations. Description courtesy of the Walters Art Museum.

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