Two Shahnameh illustrations

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Two Shahnameh illustrations
Bokhara, AH 970/1562-3 AD

gouache heightened with gold on light buff paper, one depicting the accession of King Luhrasp, the other showing the killing of a king's brother suspected of treachery, the lintel inscribed 'the library of the great King Abu'l-Ghazi 'Abdullah Khan Bahadur' and dated 970, lines of elegant black nastaliq in four columns with gold divisions above and below, gold margin between black rules, blue outer rule, (negligible smudging and flaking, generally excellent condition), futher columns and lines of black nasta'liq on verso of each miniature, gold sprinkled flyleaves
folio 12¾ x 8in. (32.3 x 20.5cm.)
minatures 9 x 5in. (22.9 x 12.7cm.)

Lot Essay

The Uzbek, 'Abdullah Khan was the greatest of the Shaybani rulers of Bukhara and reigned from AH 964-1006/1557-98 AD. He was suceeded briefly by his son 'Abd al-Mu'min Khan shortly before the Uzbek's defeat by Shah Abbas.
Two Bukhara paintings also produced for 'Abdullah Khan's royal library with almost identical inscriptions are known from a copy of Yusuf wa Zulaikha dated AH 973/1565 AD. See: Soudavar,A.: Art of the Persian Courts, New York 1992, pp.212-5, nos.80c. and 80d. The style of the illustrations is typical of Bukhara in the 1560s. (See also lot 72)

Browne, E.G.: A Literary History of Persia, Cambridge 1969, vol.IV, p.105

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