An illustrated leaf from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma‘ al-Tawarikh: Rustam shoots Isfandiyar in the eye with an arrow, Afghanistan, Herat, Timurid, circa 1425-26

Émile Tabbagh and Parish Watson, Paris and New York, by 1926

Émile Tabbagh, Paris, by 1933

Thence by descent, from whom purchased by the present owner 25 November 2021

1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition, Philadelphia (unpublished)

The scene, in which Rustam kills Isfandiyar by shooting him with an arrow with the aid of the Simurgh, is one of the emotional high points of Firdawsi’s Shahnameh epic and was frequently incorporated in other histories. A version of this scene is also seen in the Topkapi Palace Library manuscript of the Majma‘ al-Tawarikh (inv. no.Hazine 1653, f.83b), as well as the Great Mongol Shahnameh (Harvard Art Museums, inv. no.1958.288).