SIGNED HAJJI MUHAMMAD, SAFAVID IRAN, FROM A MANUSCRIPT DATED AH 1097 / 1685-6 AD

Rustam's mother Rudaba experienced significant difficulties during her labour on account of her baby's enormous size. The child was saved thanks the the timely intervention of the the Simurgh, who taught Rustam's father Zal how to perform what we would today call an emergency Caesarian section, but which in Iran is sometimes called a Rostamzad. The gory nature of the scene means it is not one often depicted in Shahnama manuscripts, although one appears on a folio of the 'Stephens' Shahnama, completed in AH 753 / 1352-3 AD, which is now in the Khalili Collection (acc.no. MSS920; Eleanor Sims, The Tale and the Image Volume 1, London, 2022, no.20, p.144). Other iterations of this scene include a 15th century painting in the University of Michigan Museum of Art (acc.no. 1963/1.43) and a Safavid interpretation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no. 65.7.1).

A historical note attached to the frame of this painting suggests in French that it comes from a known manuscript, signed by Hajji Muhammad and dated to AH 1097 / 1685-6 AD. This makes it roughly contemporary with the Khamsa of Nizami in the Pierpont Morgan Library, which also has miniatures ascribed to Hajji Muhammad and to his famous brother, Muhammad Zaman. That was copied between 6 July 1674 and 7 May 1675 (Barbara Schmitz, Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Paintings in the Pierpont Morgan Public Library, New York, 1997, p.49, no.50). The painting of Bahram Gur visiting the Black Pavilion in the Pierpoint Morgan manuscript has a very similar composition to this lot, with the figures seated on a balustrated balcony overlooking a wooded landscape (f.46; op.cit, fig.79). The heavily-shaded pillars of the building behind our figures find a parallel in the depiction of Harun al-Rashid having his hair cut (f.24, op.cit., Fig.76). Also attributed to Muhammad Zaman are the illustrations in a manuscript which was prepared for Shah 'Abbas I but with two illustrations added in 1676, a section of which is in the Chester Beatty Library (acc.no. Per.277). Among those two extra illustrations is a depiction of the Birth of Rustam (f.3).