The Shahnama (Book of Kings), the Iranian national epic, chronicles the history of Iran from the Creation to the Muslim conquest. It was written by the poet Firdawsi and completed early in the
11th century.
In this fully illustrated study, B.W. Robinson relates the history of the Shahmama's composition, and describes the Windsor manuscript and the circumstances under which it came to Britain. He
also provides a lively summary of the narrative to accompany black and white illustrations of every painting and over 50 full-colour plates. Eleanor Sims' detailed essay discusses the career
and family of the patron who commissioned the Windsor volume, Qarajaghay Khan, Governor of Mashbad, and the likely attribution of the paintings to a group of closely linked artists. She
compares other 17th century Shahnama manuscripts, and examines the wider cultural milieu reflected in the paintings. The appendices include a record of an interpolated sequence from a
post-Shahnama epic, the Barzunama, and a note on other physical features of the manuscript that deserve further attention.
