PRINTED BY MUHAMMAD BAQIR SHIRAZI, CALLIGRAPHY BY RIZA BIN AHMAD AL-HUSAYNI AL-SHIRAZI, BOMBAY, INDIA, DATED 1849 AD

Unlike typeset-printing, lithography required a master calligrapher to create the master copy, and the earliest copies are amongst the finest ever printed. This 1849 Bombay edition of the Shahnama represents only the second edition of the Persian national epic printed in India, and predates the first Iranian printed Shahnama. Copies of this text were frequently shipped to Iran, where they found an enthusiastic reception, even inspiring architectural decorations such as the carved stucco at Bandar-i Tahiri (Jennifer M. Scarce, “Bandar-i Tahiri – A Late Outpost of the Shahnama”, in R. Hillenbrand (ed.), Shahnama: The Visual Language of the Persian Book of Kings, Aldershot, 2004). Our copy, which has Qajar paintings painted over existing printed images, is likely one of these copies. The inclusion of a scene depicting the founding of the Zoroastrian religion, an otherwise rare inclusion in Shahnama manuscripts, suggests that the publisher also catered to the Parsi community local to Bombay.

More austerely decorated copies of the present manuscript are held in Leiden University Library (IDC, 2010.; SH-5) and the British Library (reg. no. 14807.h.4).