Simply pages from the Great Mongol Shahnama. Who needs an excuse? For a quick introduction to this most splendid example of book art from Mongol Iran, see my 1st post so titled. These pages are over half a metre high.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As ever, click to enlarge

 

“Breadth of conception and sheer physical size, historical focus, astonishing imagination combined with extraordinary material veracity, and a high quality of style and execution: these are among the fundamental differences between what survives of the Great Mongol Shahnama and any of the other illustrated fourteenth-century copies of Firdawsi’s epic.”

– Eleanor Sims, ‘Thoughts on a Shahnama Legacy of the Fourteenth Century’ in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, editor Linda Komaroff, Brill, 2006.