Page from an Illustrated Manuscript of the 'Second Small Shahnama' of Firdawsi (d. 1020)

Miniature from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnama. “Mubad-i Mubadan Brings Food to the Captive Vizier Izad-i Gashasp”
Iran, Tabriz (?); between 1300 and 1340
Leaf: 24 × 18.5 cm

The manuscripts that were made in the Mongol or Il-Khanid period have both features from “Arab painting” and elements from Far Eastern art. This painting is quite Arab in expression, while scenes with warriors and landscapes display Chinese inspiration to a higher degree.

The first extant copies of Firdawsi’s famous 11th-century Persian epic, the Book of Kings, were written under the Il-Khanids. This miniature comes from one of the “small Shahnamas” that are considered by some to be precursors of the period’s more mature masterpiece, the great “Mongolian Shahnama.”

Inv. no. 12/1990
Source: David Collection, Copenhagen