Manuscript

Manuscript

Illuminated pre-Islamic Iranian manuscript (double-sided) with painting of man. The painted man is pictured with a long back beard and mustache, few hairs on top of his head, and a possibly worried expression (eyes closed, brows furrowed, mouth open). As for the man's clothing, he wears a blue garment that is fastened to him by a white fabric tied around his waist, green pants, and black shoes. This man is surrounded by a strong burst of orange-red colors, followed by a light blue background. The manuscript is written in four tall columns of text on each side, save for the interruption by the drawing on the first side and the text interrupting the middle columns on the second side of the page. Some of the text is emphasized in red ink, while the rest of the manuscript is in black. There is a possible signature on the lower left corner of the page's front side. The attached tag is from the auction the item came from, and it reads: "p 39588 #1216 83" with the 83 circled, on one side, while "MILLEA BROS. LTD. abc ONLINE AUCTIONS" is stamped onto the other side. The back of the paper it is attached to reads: "Me" circled in the upper right corner and "TR5112.56" in the bottom left corner.
  • Object: Manuscript
  • Artist: -
  • Circa: 19th Century
  • Dimensions: 11.75" L x 8" W
  • Culture Area: Middle East / Iran
  • Cultural Group: -
  • Cultural Context: This is a page from the Shahnameh, composed by Iranian poet, Abolqasem Ferdowsi (940 CE- 1020 CE) based on oral tradition stories about kings and heroes of Iran in Pre-Islamic period. It is a long book of poetry with more than 50,000 couplets. It begins with creation story, the first human, the first king and ends with the Arab conquest of Iran. It represents the collective memories of Iranian prior to the Arab conquest of Iran. As the first literary book written in the New Persian language, it was instrumental in the revitalization of the Persian language. Iranians are fond of saying, ‘if it were not for the Shahnameh, we would be speaking Arabic now.’
  • Donor: Jon Emmerich
  • Catalog #: 119.034