Accession number:
MS M.540, MS M.846.11a-b
Title:
Shāhnāma.
Created:
Pakistan, probably Lahore, 1838.
Binding:
Formerly bound in Persian lacquer-painted covers of ca. 1825-1850 showing two scenes from Niẓāmi's "Khamsa"; probably attached to the manuscript in the early 20th century; cut down along the spine and edges with loss of inscriptional cartouches on the border; covers preserved separately; rebound in 1992 by Deborah Evetts in quarter green morocco with natural Irish linen sides; lacquer-painted covers removed and preserved separately.
Credit:
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
Description:
464 leaves (4 columns, 29 lines), bound : paper, ill. ; 447 x 256 mm
Provenance:
Comte Filippo Battaglini, Rimini; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Enrico Testa, Rome, 1909; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943); two leaves from the manuscript were acquired by Belle da Costa Greene after 1909 and held by her until 1950.
Notes:
Ms. probably written and illuminated in Lahore, Pakistan; colophon on fol. 351 is dated 1 Ramaḍan 1254 (i.e., Nov. 18, 1838).
Incipit: bi-nām-i khudāvand-i jān uʾ khirad.
Colophons: "finished Wednesday 1245" (i.e. 1839-1830) (fol. 1v); "book 3 finished 1 Ramaḍan 1254" (i.e. Dec. 18, 1838) (fol. 351r).
Text box: 330 x 157-170 mm.
Two leaves were excised from the text and apparently given to Belle da Costa Greene; these were returned to the Pierpont Morgan Library by her bequest (Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.846.11a,b) and reinserted in the manuscript when it was rebound in 1992; a lacuna after fol. 204 remains unfilled.
Decoration: 4 decorated title heads; 64 miniatures.
Variant Title:
Book of kings
Script:
nasta'liq
Language:
Persian
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