An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a manuscript of Firdausi's Shahnameh: Manuchehr kills Tur in battle, Persia, Safavid, mid-16th century

gouache heightened with gold on paper, the painted area extending into the outer margins, 6 lines of text within 4 columns written in nasta'liq script in black ink within cloud bands against a gold ground, catchword, reverse with 21 lines of nasta'liq text, 2 lines written on the diagonal within illuminated panels

Jean Soustiel, Objets d'Art de l'Islam, 2, Présentation d'un ensemble d'objets d'art musulman appartenant à Joseph Soustiel, 25 Oct. - 8 Nov. 1974, Paris, no.12. 

In generally good overall condition, repaired at edge, colours vivid and gold bright, as viewed.
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The leaf is very closely related to a Shahnameh manuscript that was dispersed in Paris in the early part of the twentieth century. Six leaves from that manuscript, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., were published as part of the Vever Collection, where they were attributed to Herat on the basis of similarities with another copy of the Shahnameh completed in that city in 1600 (see G.D. Lowry and M.C. Beach, An Annotated and Illustrated Checklist of the Vever Collection, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1988, pp.122-4, nos.152-7).

The present leaf shares with the leaves from the Vever Collection identical marginal rulings, text in a neat nasta'liq hand within gold cloud cartouches, and chapter headings in gold nasta'liq on a ground of coloured, spiraling vegetal scroll. A variant of the striking illumination on the recto of the present leaf is also reflected on the recto of one of the Vever Collection leaves (S1986.224). Two lines of text are placed on the diagonal within green or brown cloud cartouches, with the triangular spaces above and below filled with gold and polychrome vegetal scroll. This textual format was used as a method of announcing to the reader the arrival of an illustration, which follows here on the verso of the folio.

The three paintings from the Vever Collection are in a style showing the influence of both Qazvin and northeastern Iranian models. The turbulent politics of this era as well as the lack of royal commissions meant that many arists were probably intinerant, resulting in the dispersal of models from Qazvin to other centres such as Mashhad and Herat.