The Great Mongol Shahnameh (persian: شاهنامه دموت) also known as the Demotte Shahnameh or Great Ilkhanid Shahnama,[1] is an illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran, probably dating to the 1330s. In its original form, which has not been recorded, it was probably planned to consist of about 280 folios with 190 illustrations, bound in two volumes, although it is thought it was never completed.[2] It is the largest early book in the tradition of the Persian miniature,[3] in which it is "the most magnificent manuscript of the fourteenth century",[4] "supremely ambitious, almost awe-inspiring",[5] and "has received almost universal acclaim for the emotional intensity, eclectic style, artistic mastery and grandeur of its illustrations".[6]
It was produced in the context of the Il-khanid court ruling Persia as part of the Mongol Empire, about a century after their conquest, and just as the dynasty was about to collapse. It remained in Persia until the early 20th century, when it was broken up in Europe by the dealer George Demotte, and now exists as 57 individual pages, many significantly tampered with, in a number of collections around the world.[7]
- ^ "Great Ilkhanid Shahnama", used by the Fogg Museum
- ^ Carboni and Adamjee; Blair & Bloom, 28
- ^ Hillenbrand, 155; it is slightly larger than the copies of the Jami' al-tawarikh or Compendium of Chronicles of a few decades earlier.
- ^ Blair & Bloom, 28
- ^ Sims, 277
- ^ Canby, 33–34
- ^ Iranica