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A story from the Shahnameh
(Book of Kings) by Ferdowsi The kings of Iran who ruled during the Safavid period enjoyed reading stories about the time of legend – the mythical age of demons, angels, and talking beasts, of brave kings and evil sorcerers, when Ormuzd and Ahriman, the spirits of light and darkness, battled for control of the earth. Long ago, storytellers recited these tales in the streets and palaces of Iran. Centuries later, famous Persian poets like Hakim Abul Ghasem Ferdowsi Tousi wrote these stories down. The Shahnameh, which Ferdowsi finished in 1010, contains stories about the early kings of Iran and about the strong and brave hero, Rustam. Most of Iran had converted to Islam by that time, and Ferdowsi himself was a Muslim, but since the old stories were set in the far distant past, Ferdowsi’s characters followed the Zoroastrian religion, the faith of the pre-Islamic kings. By the 1500s, when the Safavid kings ruled, Ferdowsi’s book was hundreds of years old but still as popular as ever. Scribes at the Safavid court copied the old stories into new books. Artists painted illustrations that showed these old stories as though they were happening in their own time. The heroes and heroines of ages past were dressed in Safavid fashions, and the warriors wore Safavid-period armor and weapons. In this web “story book” the pictures are book illustrations and objects from the royal courts of the Safavid period. Click on the underlined words in the story to see more pictures. Most of the works of art you will see here are on display at the Asia Society in the exhibition Hunt for Paradise: The Court Arts of Iran, 1507-1576.
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