English: Shahnameh followed by Bahmannameh, Safavid Iran, 17th century with later additions

Persian manuscript on paper of 531 leaves, containing 88 illustrations by several hands, the majority dating from the 17th century, others probably added in the 18th and 19th centuries, text in black nasta'liq of 22 lines arranged in four columns, framed by several polychrome and gilt borders, cartouches with titles in red nasta'liq, the frontispieces of the Shahnama and the Bahmannama illuminated in a provincial style, the beginning of the text of the Shahnama marked by illuminated margins, multiple old and recent foliotations, advertisements, folios formerly remargined , long inscription in Georgian on the frontispiece dated AH 1321/1903-4, numerous impressions of a Georgian stamp, long inscription on the last leaf giving the date AH 1323/1905-6, in a Safavid leather binding with stamped decoration 16th century gilt, in a box.

Dimensions: 19.5 x 13.5 cm (text); 29.1 x 20.6 cm (sheets)

Origin : Prince Teimuraz Georgievich Bagratoni (1782 - 1846), historian of Georgia Collection Habib Sabet (1900 - 1996), Iranian banker, industrialist and philanthropist Sale of his collection, Christie's, London, October 10, 2006, lot 116 (ill.) Collection of a Belgian amateur

Exposure: On loan to the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, until 2023 Exhibited as part of "History cares neither for trees nor for the dead", Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, April 8, 2017 - February 11, 2018

An Illustrated Manuscript of Firdawsi's Shahnama and Bahmanama, Safavid Iran, 17th century and later

The manuscript contains an abridged version of the Shahnama which ends with the reign of Bahman, the codex continuing with the text of the Bahmanama, an epic poem. From the beginning of the 16th century, there was indeed a boom in the production of truncated manuscripts of the Shahnama, the text of which was frequently interpolated with that of the Bahmannama (see on this subject Ruhrdanz 1997, "About a Group of Truncated Shahnamas", Muqarnas , pp. 118-134). The manuscript is a complex codicological object which has been relatively reworked: the original leaves have thus been remargined while some have been replaced, probably in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 88 paintings it contains therefore correspond to several chronological strata. Some illustrations, contemporary with the making of the manuscript, can be attributed to at least two distinct painters while others were added in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The presence of inscriptions and seals in Georgian bear witness to the close cultural and artistic ties that existed between Safavid Iran and Georgia. The manuscript thus belonged to the collection of Prince Teimuraz Bagrationi (1782-1846), son of George XII, the last king of Georgia. Author of a history of Georgia, he died in Saint Petersburg in 1846. It is there, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, that most of his manuscripts are kept today.