Details

Collector

• Holford, George Lindsay, 1860-1926 [Browse]

Library of Congress genre(s)

• Poetry [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• Headpieces (layout features)—Iran—Shīrāz—16th century [Browse]
• Illuminated manuscripts—Iran—Shīrāz—16th century [Browse]

Summary note

Lavishly illuminated copy of the Shāhnāmah, containing 45 high quality full-page miniatures and three double-page compositions of the Shīrāz school dated 998 H [1589 or 90]. Likely produced in Shīrāz for the Safavid royal family. Bequeathed to the Princeton University Library in 1983 by Clara S. Peck, sister of Fremont C. Peck, Class of 1920.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
• Text begins on fol. 12b.
• Includes 51 miniatures; handlist of their description by Louise Marlow on file.
• Physical description: 29 lines per page, in four columns; written in nastaʻliq on glazed paper. Volume measures 47.6 x 33.5 cm; written surface, 30 x 16.5 cm. Catchwords; some marginal notations. Some leaves have been repaired at edges. In excellent condition.
• Decoration: Text framed in silver, red, gold, black and orange; columns separated by gold bands containing floral pattern. Text on gilt is in white; some marginal notes in red. Illuminated caption bands throughout text. Title page, following page and first page of text are elaborately illuminated. 51 miniatures by an artist of the Shīrāz school illustrate famous events of the epic. Six of these appear on opposing pages at the beginning, middle (222b-223a) and end. The margins are illuminated with gilt floral and animal motifs.
• Origin: Copied by Qiwām ibn Muḥammad Shīrāzī in 998 H [1589 or 90] (fol. 474a); likely produced in Shīrāz.

Binding note

Binding is red moroccan leather inlaid with blue and green bands and stamped in gold with floral and geometric designs. Doublures and end leaves are leather borders similar to the covers but with centers of white satin. Silk endbands in alternating stripes of blue, white and red. Violet silk bookmark with gold tassel.

Language note

Persian.

Provenance

Inscription of ownership on f. 475b of Khayrāt Khān, envoy from ʻAbd Allāh Quṭbshāh to Iṣfahān, who purchased the ms. from the daughter of Khān Aḥmad Khān of Gīlān and widow of Shāh ʻAbbās in Rajab 1040H (February 1631). The ms. was later owned by Sir George Holford, equerry to George V, and likely purchased by A. S. W. Rosenbach in 1925. The ms. was subsequently sold to Clara Peck by Rosenbach in 1946 (Marlow, 214).

Source acquisition

Gift; Clara S. Peck, 5/20/1983 (AM 83-173 541).

Publications about

• Marlow, L. "A Persian book of kings: the Peck Shāhnāmeh" in Princeton University Library Chronicle, 46:2 (Winter 1985), pp. 192-214.
• Clinton, J. W. and Simpson, M. S. "How Rustam killed White Div: an interdisciplinary inquiry" in Iranian Studies, 39:2, pp. 171-197.

Other format(s)

Also available in an electronic version.

Other title(s)

Shahnama with paintings.

OCLC

436108740

Statement on language in description

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