The Shahnamah is the national epic of Iran, recounting its history from the earliest times to the Arab invasion in the 7th century AD and completed in the early 11th century AD by the Persian poet Hakim Abul-Qasim Firdawsii of Tus (AD 940-1019/1025). It is the longest poem ever written by a single author, comprising about 50,000 verses. This volume is the later of two copies of the Shahnamah in the Royal Library; for the other, see RCIN 1005013.

This manuscript contains the so-called Baysunguri preface (ff.7v-14v), allegedly written by the 15th-century Timurid Prince Baysunghur, and incorporates the Barzunamah, an epic poem about the hero Barzu. It is also one of several large illustrated Shahnamah manuscripts made in Persia in the 17th century for wealthy noble (rather than royal) patrons. The long colophon (ff.752v-753r) states that the text was copied by the calligrapher Muhammad Hakim al-Husayni for the exalted nobleman Qarajaghay Khan, that the work was carried out in his library, and that it was completed in Rabi 1058 AH (April/May AD 1648). The manuscript must have been made in the capital city of Mashad, as Qarajaghay Khan was its Governor under Shah Abbas II.

The manuscript’s pages are richly decorated and illuminated throughout by anonymous artists. The wide paper margins are covered with designs of animals, trees, birds, and arabesques. The double-page frontispiece (ff. 5v-6r) depicts Solomon (Sulayman) and the Queen of Sheba (Bilqis), enthroned and attended by angels, demons, animals, birds, and Asaf the Vizier. This theme was a popular subject for Shahnamah frontispieces, as it celebrated Solomon both as a king and a prophet. It is signed by the artist Malik Husayn Isfahani, but this is his only painting in the volume. The rest of the illustrations are in a style suggesting a later generation of artists. The illustrated frontispiece is followed by two illuminated shamsahs (ff. 6v-7r), decorative motifs that resemble a sunburst or sun disk, and an illuminated double title page (ff. 7v-8r). An illuminated heading marks the beginning of the poem after the preface (f. 15v), and another marks the chapter on Rostam and Esfandyar (f. 401v).

The first illustration of the text (f.15r) is a tinted drawing rather than a coloured painting. It illustrates the preface and depicts the author’s arrival at Ghazna and encounter with three of Sultan Mahmud’s court poets in a garden. Firdawsii, depicted as a young, beardless man, is seated with the older poets under a tree, and another youth in dervish dress sits behind him.

A cycle of 148 paintings illustrates the manuscript, which includes the most extensive visual representation of Barzu’s epic found in any known copy of the text. Among the latter, only one painting – showing the hero Barzu and his ally, King Afrasiyab, lassoing one another (f. 320v) – is signed. It preserves the name of the artist Muhammad Yusuf and his style is evident in other, unsigned paintings in this volume. He collaborated with four artists, none of whom signed their work here, but have been identified tentatively on the basis of stylistic comparisons with other manuscripts: Muhammad Qasim, Muhammad Ali (son of Malik Husayn Isfahani, painter of the manuscript’s frontispiece), Pir Muhammad al-Hafiz, and an unnamed artist. The paintings are in a unified style, depicting contemporary Safavid dress and architecture, and many extend beyond their border rulings into the margins. The artists used strong colours, and abundant silver and gold paint, and left the painted surface matt rather than burnished.

The manuscript’s painted and lacquered borders are not original to the manuscript. The floral decoration is signed ‘the work of the lowliest Ali Ashraf / in the third month of 1160 [AH]’ (AD 1747).

Notes and seals on folios 5 and 461 state that by the mid-18th century the manuscript was in the library of Ahmad Shah, the Durrani king of the Afghan state (r.1747-72), and by 1822 it had passed to his great-grandson, Kamran Shah of Herat. In 1837, the army of Muhammad Shah laid siege to Herat and the British government put pressure on him to withdraw by declaring it would consider the Persian occupation of Herat a hostile act. Kamran Shah subsequently sent this manuscript to Queen Victoria to thank her for the British support. Kamran Shah’s wife Zahra inscribed a letter to Queen Victoria (f. 401r), dated 21 December 1839. She addressed Victoria as ‘the Queen of Sheba of the West, Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, at whose command the mighty government of England, during the late siege, and subsequent to it, afforded timely and valuable assistance to the country and people of Herat.’

Queen Victoria received the manuscript on 5 May 1841, accompanied by a letter from Lord Palmerston, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In it he noted: ‘Colonel Wallace of the East India Company’s Service who brought the book from Candahar where it was given to him ... says that it is probably the most splendid Copy of the work, that exists in the World, and is far more beautiful in its execution than any other Book he saw in the East. The Text, the ornamental Figures on the leaves, and the Drawings are all done by Hand.’ A translation of the note from Zahra was provided by Elliot d’Arcy Todd, the British Political Agent in Herat who had been sent to negotiate a treaty with Kamran Shah in 1839.