Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp
The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp (
History
It was created in Tabriz at the order of Shah Ismail I who had recently taken control of the city. Shah Ismail I was a charismatic and militarily aggressive leader, which allowed him to conquer large swaths of territory with cosmopolitan populations. Because of this, he had access to a wide variety of artists with many specialties and training in different styles, which allowed for the collaboration of artists and resulted in a new style of illumination later named the Tabriz Style.[2][3]
He commissioned the most prominent artists of Safavid Persia, to illustrate this manuscript as a demonstration of the shift in political landscape and as an assertion of his dominance as the Shah. A commission of the Shahnameh was a common way to assert legitimacy as a ruler because the text portrays the shah as a strong, stable individual who was to be unquestionably obeyed and respected.[4]
Such an expensive and lavishly decorated manuscript would have presented Ismail I as a successful and powerful leader tied to the strength and notoriety of the Persians. Most likely, the manuscript was either intended to ultimately be given as a gift to Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, or perhaps to celebrate the return of his son Tahmasp from a period as governor of Herat.[5] The Shahnameh has been described as a mixture of a mythology and a history of the Iranian people. This makes it comparable to works with similar themes from other regions of the world, such as the Old Testament's Book of Kings or the Iliad.[6]
Although the exact dates are still debated, most scholars believe the work began in the 1520s. It would have taken multiple generations of artists to complete, and many great artists took the position of director, including Sultan Mohammad, Mir Musavvir, and Aqa Mirak. Shah Ismail I died in 1524 shortly after the work on the manuscript had begun.[8] Tahmasp I then succeeded the throne, but at 11 years old was certainly not old enough to recognize the importance of promoting great art and culture in society. Presumably, his advisers pushed for completion of the manuscript[9] and it was likely close to completion by the mid-1530s[10] during his reign.
The Shahnameh was finally given to the Ottoman Sultan, Selim II, in 1568. Ottoman sources reveal that it arrived at the Iranian Embassy in February 1568, accompanied by 34 camels and other lavish gifts intended for the sultan.[11] Both the sultan and his palace members were impressed with the manuscript,[12] which was estimated to be 30,000 couplets long when it was first presented.[13] It long remained in the Topkapı Palace library in Istanbul, and commentaries added in the margins around 1800 prove that the remarkably decorated manuscript fascinated many rulers and scholars long after its completion.[14]
When the Ottoman Empire fell apart in the early 1900s, the manuscript appeared in the collection of Edmond James de Rothschild.[15] It stayed in the Rothschild family and then was acquired by Arthur Houghton II. The manuscript once contained 258 miniatures, but were sold individually by Houghton to avoid taxes.[16] Houghton kept 118 miniatures for himself, donated 78 paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 and sold the rest to other privately and publicly owned collections around the world.[9]
After Arthur Houghton II's passing in 1990, his son decided to sell the binding, text pages, and remaining 118 paintings. Through complex negotiations with the London art dealer Oliver Hoare, the remains of the manuscript were exchanged with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran in 1994 for a Willem de Kooning painting, Woman III. The painting had been purchased by Empress Farah, but was considered distasteful in the Islamic Republic.[17] The dispersed miniatures are in several collections, including the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, which holds 10 folios.[18][19]
On 6 April 2011, a page from this manuscript owned by scholar and collector Stuart Cary Welch was sold for 7.4 million pounds ($12 million).[20]
Miniatures
The huge scale of the work, which consisted of 759 pages total including 258 miniatures, would have required help from all the leading artists of the royal workshop. Some of the artists identified are
Dust Muhammad wrote an account of Persian painting which mentions the manuscript. It is the first of many accounts to single out the Court of Guyumars (illustrated above), which he says is by Sultan Mohammad, whom he refers to as a “zenith of the age."[26] Later scholars have called this miniature "matchless" and "probably the greatest picture in Iranian art."[27] Dust Muhammad's account also emphasizes the astonishing talents of portrait artists Aqa Mirak and Mir Musavvir, who also illustrated the Khamsa of Nizami.[28]
A famous unfinished miniature showing
One of the more prominent miniatures, He Kills the White Div, features Rustam killing a White Div (or demon) as part of his journey in rescuing King Kay Kavus. The colorful foliage surrounding Rustam and the Div is meant to counter to the black void, which symbolizes the Div's expansive cave, in the hostile region of Mazandaran, around the two figures.[30]
-
The only useful "portrait" of Tahmasp I, by Farrukh Beg, who might once have seen him
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Parable of the "Ship of Fate (Ship of Shiism)", fol. 18v.[32]
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Dust Muhammad, The Story Of Haftvad And The Worm, fol. 521v.[33]
See also
Notes
- ^ Leoni, Francesca. "The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp: Heilbrunn Template of Art History". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
- ^ "FARIDUN IN THE GUISE OF A DRAGON TESTS HIS SONS: ILLUSTRATED FOLIO (F.42) FROM THE SHAHNAMEH OF SHAH TAHMASP, ATTRIBUTED TO AQA MIRAK, PERSIA, TABRIZ, ROYAL ATELIER, CIRCA 1525-35". Sotheby's. April 6, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-8076-0812-8.
- )
- ^ Piotrovsky and Rogers, 112
- PMID 20793198.
- ^ Canby (2014), 148, 340
- ^ "The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
- ^ a b "Untold story of 'Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp'". Iran Daily. April 29, 2014.
- ^ Walther & Wolf, 424
- ^ Leoni, Francesca (June 2008). "The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
- PMID 20793198.
- JSTOR 1523295.
- ^ Leoni, Francesca (June 2008). "The Shanama of Shah Tahmasp". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
- ^ Walther & Wolf, 420
- ^ "Untold Story of 'Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp'". Iran Daily. April 29, 214.
- ^ Blair, Sheila. "Making and Mutilating Manuscripts of the Shahnama". Khan Academy. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- ^ Piotrovsky and Rogers, 112-117; Walther & Wolf, 420
- ^ "Ten Folios from the Copy of Firdawsi's Shahnamah Made for Shah Tahmasp (Houghton Shahnamah)". Khalili Collections.
- ^ "16th century folio sets Islamic art auction record". reuters.com. 6 April 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
- JSTOR 1513701.
- ^ Walther and Wolf, 420; for Abd al-Samad, see his biography; there is some controversy over his contributions
- ^ Piotrovsky and Rogers, 112-117
- ISBN 9781588394361.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Titley, 80; Walther & Wolf, 420-424
- ISBN 978-0486220543.
- ^ Titley, 83; Welch, 17, both quoted
- )
- ^ Canby (1993), 79-80
- JSTOR 25161404.
- ^ Canby (2014), 86, 335
- ^ Canby (2014), 68
- ^ Canby (2014), 280, 353
- ^ Welch, Stuart Cary, Wonders of the age : masterpieces of early Safavid painting, 1501-1576 (excerpt) (PDF), p. 58 (No. 12 )
- ^ Canby (2014), 82, 335
- ^ Canby, Sheila R. (December 14, 2018). "The Angel Surush Rescues Khusrau Parviz from a Cul-de-sac". Met Museum. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
References
- Blair, Sheila, and Bloom, Jonathan M., The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250-1800, 1995, Yale University Press Pelican History of Art, ISBN 0300064659
- Canby, Sheila R., Persian Painting, 1993, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714114590
- Canby, Sheila R. (2014), The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp: The Persian Book of Kings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 337, ISBN 9780300194548
- Piotrovsky M.B. and Rogers, J.M. (eds), Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands, 2004, Prestel, ISBN 3791330551
- Titley, Norah M., Persian Miniature Painting, and its Influence on the Art of Turkey and India, 1983, University of Texas Press, ISBN 0292764847
- Walther, Ingo F. and Wolf, Norbert, Masterpieces of Illumination (Codices Illustres); pp 350–3; 2005, Taschen, Köln; ISBN 382284750X
- Welch, Stuart Cary. Royal Persian Manuscripts, Thames & Hudson, 1976, ISBN 0500270740
Further reading
- Dickson M. B. and Welch S. C., The Houghton Shahnameh, 1981, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2 vols.
- Rüstem, Ünver, The Afterlife of a Royal Gift: The Ottoman Inserts of the Shāhnāma-i Shāhī. In Muqarnas, vol. 29, 2012, pp 245–337.
- Waghmar, Burzine, An Annotated Micro-history and Bibliography of the Houghton Shahnama. In Sunil Sharma and Burzine Waghmar, eds. Firdawsii Millennium Indicum: Proceedings of the Shahnama Millenary Seminar, K R Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai, 8–9 January 2011, Mumbai: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, 2016, pp 144–80. ISBN 9789381324103.
- ISBN 0870990284, 9780870990281
External links
- Media related to Shah Tahmasp's Shahnameh at Wikimedia Commons