Ferdowsi (940-1019/25 CE) Shahnameh, Iran or Central Asia, 1503 CE

Ferdowsi (940-1019/25 CE) Shahnameh, Iran or Central Asia, 1503 CE 17th Jumada al-Thani 909 AH. Persian manuscript on burnished and sized paper, approx. 462 leaves, 31 x 21cm, main text in black ink, nasta'liq script, 25 lines to the page, in 4 columns, each column separately ruled in gilt, all enclosed by single outer frame in blue, headings in red, blue or gold ink, ta'liq script, catchwords throughout, f. [1] verso with polychromatic floral roundel incorporating title ('Kitab-i Shahnameh') in white thuluth, 2 similar headpieces to f. [1] recto and f. [7] recto (with text in eastern Kufic and thuluth respectively), 32 miniatures in gouache heightened with gold (possibly Indian, 19th century, in a 16th-century Persian style), all approx. 16 x 9cm. Binding: later shagreen, rebacked, covers decorated in blind red leather doublures. Condition: f. [1] repaired, with small hole in roundel and later Persian ownership inscriptions (one dated 1257, i.e 1841/2 CE), extensive marginal repairs from f. 400 to end, occasionally affecting text, these final 60 or leaves also browned, closed tear in penultimate leaf, final leaf laid down, one leaf extensive repaired tear through miniature, occasional repairs elsewhere (chiefly marginal extensions), customary finger-soiling to margins, a few old stains, attempted erasure of faces in several miniatures, one miniature with small section detached but present, ff. [17-18], [40-41] and [147-8] catchwords not continuous, a few other catchwords cropped, missing or concealed by repair Qty: (1) Note: An imposing manuscript copy of the Persian national epic, of a notably early and auspicious date, completed two years after the foundation of the Safavid dynasty by Shah Isma'il I in 1501, which re-established Persia as an independent political entity for the first time since the Arab conquest. Shah Isma'il sought to model his rule on the representation of Persian kingship found in the Shahnameh, and had the work recited to his troops before battle during the ensuing war against the ruling Aq Qoyunlu tribal confederacy. 'Isma'il's vision of the state was neither purely messianic nor juristic; it was primarily based on the Persian model of kingship ... In the tradition of the Timurid rulers of Iran and the Turkmen dynasties before him, he was an avid connoisseur of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and other Persian poetic narratives, which helped him portray himself as the heir to the Persian tradition of kingship. He patronized the production of great, illustrated copies of these works ... Fascinated by Persian national legends, Isma'il named three of his four sons after legendary heroes of the Shahnameh ... And Isma'il had good incentive to envision himself as a Shahnameh: perhaps a Kaykhosrow, the prototype of the great Persian king who vanquished the Turanic king Afrasiyab' (Amanat, Iran: A Modern History, 2017, p. 61).