English: AZAR BARZIN KILLING A DRAGON

SAFAVID QAZVIN, IRAN, CIRCA 1560

Folios from the Bahmannama, presumably interpolated into a Shahnama manuscript, comprising one illustration in opaque pigments and 3 further folios of text, each with 25ll. of strong black nasta'liq, headings in white on panels of gold illumination, occasional text on the diagonal between panels of floral illumination, mounted, framed and glazed Painting 9 x 7 7/8in. (22.8 x 20cm.) at largest; text panel 9½ x 5 7/8in. (24.1 x 14.3cm.); folio 13¾ x 9¼in. (34.7 x 23.5cm.)

Karin Rührdanz has noted in the article 'About a Group of Truncated Shahnamas: A Case Study in the Commercial Production of Illustrated Manuscripts in the Second Part of the Sixteenth Century' (Muqarnas 14, 1997, p.124) that this section of the Bahmannama is not normally illustrated, making this a highly unusual painting.