Description of the manuscript: Or. 494

Persian, paper, 547 ff., nasta`liq script, illuminated and illustrated, dated Saturday 15 Ramadan 840/1437, copied by `Imad al-Din `Abd al-Rahman al-Katib (colophon on f. 547a), The colophon uses the term katabahu, which implies that the illustrations and illuminations in this manuscript are made by someone different from the copyist. All miniatures but one have been extensively reworked at a later date, full-leather Islamic binding with flap, with coloured ornamentation (borders and medallion).
Shahnama, by Mansur Abu al-Qasim Firdawsi Tusi (c. 934-c. 1020). CCO 631 (II, p. 108). See Levinus Warner and his Legacy (Leiden 1970), pp. 58-59, with colour illustration of f. 24r. The miniatures in this volume have been surveyed in Jill Norgren & Edward Davis, Preliminary Index of Shah-Nameh Illustrations. Ann Arbor 1969.
The manuscript is part of the Legacy of Levinus Warner (d. 1665), and was most probably purchased by Warner in Istanbul.

A survey of the illustrations and illumination work of Leiden Or. 494:

f. 1a. Illumination ( vignettes).
f. 1b. Illumination (frame) over the beginning of the introduction.
ff. 7b-8a. Double-page dedicatory frontispice. Open air audience of a king. He is sitting on a carpet near a rivulet, holding a small bowl in his right hand. Trees are nearby. Several persons (visitors or courtiers), both standing and sitting, look at him.
Some are holding bowls (with food?), others sit in attendance. In the foreground is a gold table with three blue porcelain jugs. At the left, two horses are kept by an attendant. At the far left, two cheetahs are kept by two attendants. Evidently, this is not an illustration of the text of the Shahnama, but of the patron who commissioned the manuscript. He remains unidentified, however.
ff. 8b-9a. Double-page illuminated beginning of the text of the Shahnama.
f. 11b. Gayumarth ascends the throne. He is sitting on a carpet on a rocky elevation. Five man stand in front of him. All are clothed in simple spotted textiles.
f. 24b. Irag is slain by Tur. Irag is lying down, dressed in white clothing on a carpet. Tur is dressed like a warrior and plunges a dagger in his breast. Tents and landscape on the background. Reproduced in Levinus Warner and his legacy (Leiden 1970), between pp. 58-59. This miniature is the only one which has escaped the later retouching.
f. 49a. Rustam hits the white elephant. The fight happens on an open space, with a tree in the background. Rustam hits the animal with a club on the head and blood is streaming down. People are looking from afar. Reproduced in Ivan Stchoukine,
Les peintures des manuscrits timurides (Paris 1954), plate XXXI.
f. 67a. Rustam slays the white Div. Rustam and the white demon are in a grotto. Rustam plunges his sword in the creature’s belly. The creature’s left leg has been cut off. Outside the cave, Shah Ka’us is standing, bound to a tree, with his horse standing next to him. Part of the miniature is outside the frame.
f. 89b. Rustam and Suhrab, af ter their battIe, in a mountanous landscape. Suhrab lies dying on the ground and only now his true identity is discovered by Rustam, who holds his neck with his right hand. Two horses stand by.
f. 114a. Siyawush plays at polo with Garsiwaz. The two players with their sticks on horseback confronting one another, in the open air. The ball is between them on the ground.
f. 133b. Kay Khusraw crosses the river Oxus with Giw and Farangis. The three men sit on horseback. The horses emerge only with their necks and heads from the water. The silver paint for the water has now oxidized and has changed into greyish black.
f. 151b. Kay Khusraw has Tus recalled. The king sits on his throne, in the open air. Tus stands in front of him, bearing his sword and bow with arrows. On the foreground stands a courtier, and Tus has a companion standing behind him. Several armed men look from a distance.
f. 180a. Rustam seizes the Khaqan of Chin by pulling him with a lasso from his elephant. Rustam is on horseback, the Khaqan sits in a hawdag on a white elephant, the lasso strung around his neck. Horsemen aim their bows and arrows at Rustam. Several warriors look on from a distance.
f. 204a. Rustam rescues Bizhan from the pit. Rustam (with cheetah-head headgear and holding a lion-headed club in his left hand) looks down into the pit through a hole in the rock. Bizhan is sitting there and looks up. Three warriors are looking from aside.
f. 240b. Kay Khusraw battles Shide. Both are on horseback, the king pursuing Shide and hitting him on the back of his head. A slain warrior’s head is lying on the ground, near a broken sword. Other warriors are looking from a distance. Two banners exceed the frame of the miniature.
f. 259a. Kay Khusraw beheads Afrasiyab while Garsivaz is watching. The king has just killed Afrasiyab who is sitting in front of him, with naked torso and his hands bound on his back. His head lies on the ground. The image of the king has been
severely damaged. Garsiwaz sits on horseback. Someone is watching from a distance.
f. 268b. Luhrasp enthroned. Luhrasp is sitting in the open air on the throne and speaks out. In front of him are two notables sitting on a small bench. Courtiers stand behind the king and others look from at a distance.
f. 269a. End of the first volume (Magallad).
f. 269b. Illumination in a frame, indicating the beginning of the second volume.
f. 296a. Asfandiyar fights the lions. Asfandiyar is on horseback and hits a lion with his sword on the head and the back, blood is flowing from the wound. Another lion is nearby.
f. 318a. Rustam kills Asfandiyar. Both are on horseback, out in the open. Rustam, at the left, has just shot his double-pointed arrow into Asfandiyar’s face, who now looks down and grabs the arrow with his hand.
f. 354a. Iskandar approaching Babil meets Gushbestar. Iskandar on a black horse, followed by an attendant who is also on horseback and who holds a parasol over his master, rides through the water and talks to Gushbestar who his sitting on a mat. Several people are looking from a distance from behind a rock. The silver paint for the water has now oxidized and has changed into greyish black.
f. 385a. Bahram Gur hunting. The king sits on a camel and has just shot a gazelle with his arrow. From a distance Arzu plays the harp, sitting on horseback. This miniature is not mentioned by Norgren & Davis, nor is their a subject like this in their survey.
f. 419b. Khushnawaz in hot pursuit of Sufaray in battle. Both are on horseback. He hits him on the back of his head with his battIe club. A broken sword and shield lie on the ground. People are looking from a distance.
f. 547a. Illumination with floral motives on both sides of the colophon.

Colophon:
Texts and digitizing by Jan Just Witkam, Leiden, February 2003
Web architecture: J.F.C. Tisseur