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拍品專文
From the moment that Abu’l-Qasim Firdawsi finished writing his epic masterpiece in 1010, the Shahnama has been retold and elaborated upon by later poets. Artists illustrated manuscripts of the poem, bringing its narrative to life for generations of readers. As the stories travelled from Iran to India, local artistic and storytelling traditions provided additional inspiration and variation. Here the early stories of the Shahnama are told in their fullest form. Though Firdowsi only mentioned Garshasp and Sam briefly, our manuscript recounts in detail their travels to strange lands, their romances with Paridukht and Rudaba, and their encounters with ferocious divs. Inspired by this fabric of stories, the artist Miran painted over one hundred vibrant illustrations to guide the reader through this landscape of knights and demons.
THE TEXT
This extraordinary manuscript comprises three texts: the Shahnama of Firdawsi (d. 1025 AD), the Garshaspnama of Abu Mansur 'Ali bin Ahmad Asadi Tusi (d. 1073 AD) and the lesser-known Samnama which has been attributed to Khwaju Kirmani (d. 1349). The titular heroes of the Garshaspnama and Samnama are only dealt with briefly by Firdawsi and the text of the Shahnama used here does not strictly adhere to the published version. Sections have been abridged, omitted or replaced to provide for a more visually interesting group of illustrations.
The text is introduced by the preface from the Baysunghur Shahnama of 1430 which, ironically, states that no additions have been made to the text. This is followed by the preface of Abu Mansur Mamari’s Shahnama of 957. Abu Mansur’s Shahnama was the primary source for Firdawsi’s text but is now lost although the preface, which gives the genealogy of Abu Mansur’s family back to Khosrow II (r. 591-628), is widely reproduced in later Shahnamas as it has been here.
The main text then opens with the Shahnama which runs until the death of Jamshid at the hands of the evil King Zahhak. The text comprises twenty-one folios and is illustrated by seven paintings. This moves directly into the Garshaspnama of Tusi which comprises ninety-four folios and thirty-one illustrations. The story centres around Garshasp, the great-grandfather to Rustam, and is notable for its philosophical discussion that goes alongside the narrative. However, much more to the benefit of the illustrations are the many battles against rhinoceri and elephants encountered by Garshasp in the story.
The Garshaspnama is followed by a return to the Shahnama which runs through approximately one third of the middle of the manuscript where there are spaces left empty for further illustrations. Then comes the Samnama which recounts the exploits of the hero Sam, son of Nariman. The story centres around his love for the Chinese princess Paridukht all the while engaging in a succession of battles with demons (divs) and giants. These subjects must have been especially ripe for artists and it is unsurprising that this section includes fifty-three illustrations, the final nine all episodes from the life of Zal.
The manuscript ends with the birth of Rustam. Given the lack of a colophon and the abrupt ending, it suggests that this manuscript was intended as the first volume in an incredibly ambitious project with a second volume intending to include the remainder of the Shahnama, the Bahmannama and Barzunama. Traditionally the post-Shahnama epics were treated as separate entities from Firdawsi’s Shahnama and often purposefully excluded as a dilution of Firdawsi's masterpiece. However, the influence of romantic oral traditions of storytelling meant that the Shahnama began to serve as an opening for the post-Shahnama epics to reappear as part of enlarged versions of the Shahnama.
The arrangement of this text follows on from the practice of interpolation of texts for illustrated manuscripts from Shiraz and other centres of manuscript production in the second half of the 16th century. The earliest example with sizeable interpolation is a manuscript described as a compendium of epics copied in Qazvin by Abd al-Vahhab in 1569 which must have set a precedent for other interpolated texts (Karin Ruhrdanz "About a group of truncated Shahnamas: A case study in the commercial production of illustrated manuscripts in the second part of the sixteenth century. Muqarnas, Volume XIV, pp 118-133).
THE PAINTINGS
The paintings in the manuscript fall into two sections with the large section of unillustrated spaces described above in between. Although the majority of paintings appear to be in the same hand there is a noticeable difference between the two sections. The first section prefers to draw upon stock motifs and compositions from earlier works. In places this leaves paintings lacking cohesion or even contrasting elements comprising the same composition. The second section is far more coherent and successful as a result.
A good example of the eclecticism of the first section is found in an illustration of Garshasp killing two lions (f.57r) and another where Garshasp visits a Brahmin (f.40v). In the first painting the lions appear almost cut and pasted from an earlier 17th century example (see Shah Jahan hunting lions at Burhanpur in the Windsor Padshahnama, Royal Collection Trust RCIN 1005025.au). Meanwhile Garshasp is mounted on a horse which is noticeably different from the unbridled horse in the far side of the image. In the second painting a Brahmin painted in the earlier Mughal tradition and relates to a painting of a Pahlavan initiation ceremony from the Aurangzeb period in the St. Petersburg Muraqqa' (f.131b recto). The nilgai in the foreground are also well painted and recall a study of a nilgai by Mansur from the Shah Jahan Album, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (obj.no. 55.121.10.13). However, Garshasp and the mountains are rendered comparatively poorly.
Further examples of this eclecticism are scattered throughout the first section of the manuscript. These include irregular depictions of villages or fortifications, the inclusion of European-style square-riggers as sea vessels of choice and elephants which are almost always well-drawn. Where the artist was unable to draw upon earlier Mughal stock types for animals, such as nilgai or elephants, the result is noticeably weaker with an example being the painting of the giant water rat (f.75r). Another surprising weakness is the depiction of dragons (f.47v. and f.118r.), images of which should have been readily available in earlier manuscripts.
Whilst it is unclear if there was a gap of any meaningful time between the paintings in the first and second sections, by the second section our artist is generally more consistent with more harmonious compositions. It is in this more profusely illustrated second section that the true joy of the manuscript lies. The painter clearly delights in the numerous paintings of demons and giants, which often equal or even surpass earlier prototypes. The text of the Samnama provides a wide variety of demons for the artist to depict in all different colours, personalities and sizes. The impressively large scope and scale of these demons and giants, often dwarfing Sam and his men, finds parallel only in Akbar-period manuscripts such as the Razmnama of Hamida Begum (Linda York Leach, Paintings from India, Oxford, 1998, no.9, pp.40-7, and Milo Cleveland Beach, The Adventures of Rama, Washington D.C., 1983, pp.18, 29).
THE ARTIST
A majority of the paintings are ascribed to ‘Miran’ either below or in the margin. This name does not seem to feature in contemporary texts or in more recent scholarship, but he must have been highly skilled and of sufficient standing to be primary artist on a project of such ambitious scale and expense. The huge number of illustrations tackle a wide range of subjects and to be responsible for portraying each would have presented a large challenge, at times met more successfully than others.
Two loose paintings from the present manuscript ascribed to Miran have come to market. The first is from the Samnama section and was exhibited in Paris in 1983 (Marie-Christine David and Jean Soustiel, Miniatures orientales de l'Inde, Paris, 1983, cat. 40, pp.40-1). The second of Kaveh petitioning Zahhak was sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2013, lot 64. A further unsigned painting from an unidentified epic was sold in these Rooms, 24 October 2019, lot 83, which bears close stylistic comparison to the paintings in our manuscript and may well be by the same hand.
Another painting signed ‘Miran’ and dated AH 1147 / 1743-5 AD is a copy of an early 17th century painting of Jahangir watching wrestlers from a balcony (Boris Dorn, Catalogue des manuscrit et xylographes orientaux de St. Petersbourg, St. Petersburg, 1852, no.489, fol.3r, pp.420-21). That painting is a faithful copy, if somewhat stiffer. The three-quarter rendering of some of the faces of the figures and the close together positioning of eyes are features consistent with our illustrations. The wrestlers themselves in the St. Petersburg painting are comparable to the figures seen disembowelling an elephant in f.38r of the present manuscript.
That so many paintings in the manuscript, especially in the first half, almost directly draw upon earlier models means that Miran must have had access to a considerable library of 16th and 17th century Mughal manuscripts. In the mid-18th century this points to a small number of possible locations, all of which would be major Mughal centres. One clue in ascertaining the place of production can be found in the turbans worn by the protagonists when not in battle, also seen in all three of the aforementioned loose paintings. The distinctive large turban with a plume at the crest is closely comparable to those in an illustrated Khavarannama from Kashmir in the National Museum, New Delhi (inv. No. 89.1065). Although the paintings of that manuscript are inferior to those here, there are similarities in tonality and composition of certain scenes, in addition to the fashion. Lahore is the closest large Mughal metropolitan centre to Kashmir which would fulfil the criteria discussed above and seems a likely place of production for our manuscript with its stocky figures, simplicity of vegetation and blocks of bright yellow and green.
The similarities between the paintings in our manuscript and painting in the Pahari hill states around a similar period, or slightly later, should also be noted. In particular, comparisons should be drawn to the depiction of demons from our Samnama and those in 18th century Pahari painting. A group of folios from a Bhagavata Purana dated 1775-1790 and attributed to the Nainsukh Family Workshop from Guler and now in the Royal Collection Trust shows a similarly wide variety of demons with comparable features to those in our manuscript (including RCIN 925233; RCIN 9252237; RCIN 925231 and RCIN 925230).
In our manuscript we witness Miran's transformation from the faithful copyist to the fully-fledged master. From his tentative inclusions of earlier elements in the first part, through to the glorious images later on, here is an artist coming of age, integrating the sum of his influence into a coherent and highly personal style.
PROVENANCE
The verso of each page of the manuscript bears the rectangular seal impression of the Nawab Wazir of Awadh Asaf al-Dawla (r. 1775-97). Although the Nawabs of Awadh were part of the Mughal nobility, Asaf al-Dawla continued to exert ever-greater independence as de facto ruler of Awadh as centralised Mughal political power dissolved through the 18th century. Asaf al-Daula moved the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow in 1775, remodelling the city and transforming it into a cultural hub in an attempt to surpass his rivals Tipu Sultan of Mysore and Nizam ‘Ali Khan of Hyderabad in cultural capital (Arts of Courtly Lucknow, p.18). As part of this process, Asaf al-Dawla assembled a splendid library of paintings and manuscripts which had been sold or looted from the Mughal imperial library following Nadir Shah’s sacking of Delhi in 1739. Three of the manuscripts from the Lucknow library were the Padshahnama, the Gulistan of Sa’adi copied by Muhammad Husayn Kashmiri and the Khamsa of Nava’i copied by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi which were presented to Lord Teignmouth for King George III in 1799 and are now in the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 1005025; RCIN 1005022; RCIN 1005032).
This splendid manuscript formed part of the esteemed library at Lucknow before it was later part of the Ghaemmaghami Collection in Tehran and then the Habib Sabet Collection. Sabet (1903-1990) was an Iranian Baha’i industrialist, entrepreneur and philanthropist who would become one of the wealthiest men in Pahlavi Iran. Sabet started out in the burgeoning automotive industry before he founded Zamzam in 1955, the first bottled soft drink company in Iran in close association with Pepsi-Cola. He would then become a pioneer of Iranian television broadcasting. Habib Sabet left Iran before 1979, settling in Paris and finally Los Angeles. He formed an important collection of art which, as well as specialising in Iranian art of the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, contained an outstanding collection of French furniture and Chinese jades.
THE TEXT
This extraordinary manuscript comprises three texts: the Shahnama of Firdawsi (d. 1025 AD), the Garshaspnama of Abu Mansur 'Ali bin Ahmad Asadi Tusi (d. 1073 AD) and the lesser-known Samnama which has been attributed to Khwaju Kirmani (d. 1349). The titular heroes of the Garshaspnama and Samnama are only dealt with briefly by Firdawsi and the text of the Shahnama used here does not strictly adhere to the published version. Sections have been abridged, omitted or replaced to provide for a more visually interesting group of illustrations.
The text is introduced by the preface from the Baysunghur Shahnama of 1430 which, ironically, states that no additions have been made to the text. This is followed by the preface of Abu Mansur Mamari’s Shahnama of 957. Abu Mansur’s Shahnama was the primary source for Firdawsi’s text but is now lost although the preface, which gives the genealogy of Abu Mansur’s family back to Khosrow II (r. 591-628), is widely reproduced in later Shahnamas as it has been here.
The main text then opens with the Shahnama which runs until the death of Jamshid at the hands of the evil King Zahhak. The text comprises twenty-one folios and is illustrated by seven paintings. This moves directly into the Garshaspnama of Tusi which comprises ninety-four folios and thirty-one illustrations. The story centres around Garshasp, the great-grandfather to Rustam, and is notable for its philosophical discussion that goes alongside the narrative. However, much more to the benefit of the illustrations are the many battles against rhinoceri and elephants encountered by Garshasp in the story.
The Garshaspnama is followed by a return to the Shahnama which runs through approximately one third of the middle of the manuscript where there are spaces left empty for further illustrations. Then comes the Samnama which recounts the exploits of the hero Sam, son of Nariman. The story centres around his love for the Chinese princess Paridukht all the while engaging in a succession of battles with demons (divs) and giants. These subjects must have been especially ripe for artists and it is unsurprising that this section includes fifty-three illustrations, the final nine all episodes from the life of Zal.
The manuscript ends with the birth of Rustam. Given the lack of a colophon and the abrupt ending, it suggests that this manuscript was intended as the first volume in an incredibly ambitious project with a second volume intending to include the remainder of the Shahnama, the Bahmannama and Barzunama. Traditionally the post-Shahnama epics were treated as separate entities from Firdawsi’s Shahnama and often purposefully excluded as a dilution of Firdawsi's masterpiece. However, the influence of romantic oral traditions of storytelling meant that the Shahnama began to serve as an opening for the post-Shahnama epics to reappear as part of enlarged versions of the Shahnama.
The arrangement of this text follows on from the practice of interpolation of texts for illustrated manuscripts from Shiraz and other centres of manuscript production in the second half of the 16th century. The earliest example with sizeable interpolation is a manuscript described as a compendium of epics copied in Qazvin by Abd al-Vahhab in 1569 which must have set a precedent for other interpolated texts (Karin Ruhrdanz "About a group of truncated Shahnamas: A case study in the commercial production of illustrated manuscripts in the second part of the sixteenth century. Muqarnas, Volume XIV, pp 118-133).
THE PAINTINGS
The paintings in the manuscript fall into two sections with the large section of unillustrated spaces described above in between. Although the majority of paintings appear to be in the same hand there is a noticeable difference between the two sections. The first section prefers to draw upon stock motifs and compositions from earlier works. In places this leaves paintings lacking cohesion or even contrasting elements comprising the same composition. The second section is far more coherent and successful as a result.
A good example of the eclecticism of the first section is found in an illustration of Garshasp killing two lions (f.57r) and another where Garshasp visits a Brahmin (f.40v). In the first painting the lions appear almost cut and pasted from an earlier 17th century example (see Shah Jahan hunting lions at Burhanpur in the Windsor Padshahnama, Royal Collection Trust RCIN 1005025.au). Meanwhile Garshasp is mounted on a horse which is noticeably different from the unbridled horse in the far side of the image. In the second painting a Brahmin painted in the earlier Mughal tradition and relates to a painting of a Pahlavan initiation ceremony from the Aurangzeb period in the St. Petersburg Muraqqa' (f.131b recto). The nilgai in the foreground are also well painted and recall a study of a nilgai by Mansur from the Shah Jahan Album, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (obj.no. 55.121.10.13). However, Garshasp and the mountains are rendered comparatively poorly.
Further examples of this eclecticism are scattered throughout the first section of the manuscript. These include irregular depictions of villages or fortifications, the inclusion of European-style square-riggers as sea vessels of choice and elephants which are almost always well-drawn. Where the artist was unable to draw upon earlier Mughal stock types for animals, such as nilgai or elephants, the result is noticeably weaker with an example being the painting of the giant water rat (f.75r). Another surprising weakness is the depiction of dragons (f.47v. and f.118r.), images of which should have been readily available in earlier manuscripts.
Whilst it is unclear if there was a gap of any meaningful time between the paintings in the first and second sections, by the second section our artist is generally more consistent with more harmonious compositions. It is in this more profusely illustrated second section that the true joy of the manuscript lies. The painter clearly delights in the numerous paintings of demons and giants, which often equal or even surpass earlier prototypes. The text of the Samnama provides a wide variety of demons for the artist to depict in all different colours, personalities and sizes. The impressively large scope and scale of these demons and giants, often dwarfing Sam and his men, finds parallel only in Akbar-period manuscripts such as the Razmnama of Hamida Begum (Linda York Leach, Paintings from India, Oxford, 1998, no.9, pp.40-7, and Milo Cleveland Beach, The Adventures of Rama, Washington D.C., 1983, pp.18, 29).
THE ARTIST
A majority of the paintings are ascribed to ‘Miran’ either below or in the margin. This name does not seem to feature in contemporary texts or in more recent scholarship, but he must have been highly skilled and of sufficient standing to be primary artist on a project of such ambitious scale and expense. The huge number of illustrations tackle a wide range of subjects and to be responsible for portraying each would have presented a large challenge, at times met more successfully than others.
Two loose paintings from the present manuscript ascribed to Miran have come to market. The first is from the Samnama section and was exhibited in Paris in 1983 (Marie-Christine David and Jean Soustiel, Miniatures orientales de l'Inde, Paris, 1983, cat. 40, pp.40-1). The second of Kaveh petitioning Zahhak was sold in these Rooms, 10 June 2013, lot 64. A further unsigned painting from an unidentified epic was sold in these Rooms, 24 October 2019, lot 83, which bears close stylistic comparison to the paintings in our manuscript and may well be by the same hand.
Another painting signed ‘Miran’ and dated AH 1147 / 1743-5 AD is a copy of an early 17th century painting of Jahangir watching wrestlers from a balcony (Boris Dorn, Catalogue des manuscrit et xylographes orientaux de St. Petersbourg, St. Petersburg, 1852, no.489, fol.3r, pp.420-21). That painting is a faithful copy, if somewhat stiffer. The three-quarter rendering of some of the faces of the figures and the close together positioning of eyes are features consistent with our illustrations. The wrestlers themselves in the St. Petersburg painting are comparable to the figures seen disembowelling an elephant in f.38r of the present manuscript.
That so many paintings in the manuscript, especially in the first half, almost directly draw upon earlier models means that Miran must have had access to a considerable library of 16th and 17th century Mughal manuscripts. In the mid-18th century this points to a small number of possible locations, all of which would be major Mughal centres. One clue in ascertaining the place of production can be found in the turbans worn by the protagonists when not in battle, also seen in all three of the aforementioned loose paintings. The distinctive large turban with a plume at the crest is closely comparable to those in an illustrated Khavarannama from Kashmir in the National Museum, New Delhi (inv. No. 89.1065). Although the paintings of that manuscript are inferior to those here, there are similarities in tonality and composition of certain scenes, in addition to the fashion. Lahore is the closest large Mughal metropolitan centre to Kashmir which would fulfil the criteria discussed above and seems a likely place of production for our manuscript with its stocky figures, simplicity of vegetation and blocks of bright yellow and green.
The similarities between the paintings in our manuscript and painting in the Pahari hill states around a similar period, or slightly later, should also be noted. In particular, comparisons should be drawn to the depiction of demons from our Samnama and those in 18th century Pahari painting. A group of folios from a Bhagavata Purana dated 1775-1790 and attributed to the Nainsukh Family Workshop from Guler and now in the Royal Collection Trust shows a similarly wide variety of demons with comparable features to those in our manuscript (including RCIN 925233; RCIN 9252237; RCIN 925231 and RCIN 925230).
In our manuscript we witness Miran's transformation from the faithful copyist to the fully-fledged master. From his tentative inclusions of earlier elements in the first part, through to the glorious images later on, here is an artist coming of age, integrating the sum of his influence into a coherent and highly personal style.
PROVENANCE
The verso of each page of the manuscript bears the rectangular seal impression of the Nawab Wazir of Awadh Asaf al-Dawla (r. 1775-97). Although the Nawabs of Awadh were part of the Mughal nobility, Asaf al-Dawla continued to exert ever-greater independence as de facto ruler of Awadh as centralised Mughal political power dissolved through the 18th century. Asaf al-Daula moved the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow in 1775, remodelling the city and transforming it into a cultural hub in an attempt to surpass his rivals Tipu Sultan of Mysore and Nizam ‘Ali Khan of Hyderabad in cultural capital (Arts of Courtly Lucknow, p.18). As part of this process, Asaf al-Dawla assembled a splendid library of paintings and manuscripts which had been sold or looted from the Mughal imperial library following Nadir Shah’s sacking of Delhi in 1739. Three of the manuscripts from the Lucknow library were the Padshahnama, the Gulistan of Sa’adi copied by Muhammad Husayn Kashmiri and the Khamsa of Nava’i copied by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi which were presented to Lord Teignmouth for King George III in 1799 and are now in the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 1005025; RCIN 1005022; RCIN 1005032).
This splendid manuscript formed part of the esteemed library at Lucknow before it was later part of the Ghaemmaghami Collection in Tehran and then the Habib Sabet Collection. Sabet (1903-1990) was an Iranian Baha’i industrialist, entrepreneur and philanthropist who would become one of the wealthiest men in Pahlavi Iran. Sabet started out in the burgeoning automotive industry before he founded Zamzam in 1955, the first bottled soft drink company in Iran in close association with Pepsi-Cola. He would then become a pioneer of Iranian television broadcasting. Habib Sabet left Iran before 1979, settling in Paris and finally Los Angeles. He formed an important collection of art which, as well as specialising in Iranian art of the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, contained an outstanding collection of French furniture and Chinese jades.