Katalog

184 The Dresden manuscript dates to the late Mughal period and probably originates from the North Indian province of Kashmir. 1 The text is not dated, and the high qual- ity of the calligraphy suggests a wealthy client or a professional writer hoping to attract wealthy customers. 2 There are many places where areas of various sizes were left blank for illustrations and ornamental headings. 3 Following an old tradition, the illustrations are always accompanied by at least two lines of text; here they are on the top and the bottom of each page. The calligrapher’s text is framed by margins and subdivided into four columns by another hand. The same person might have added the red headings that occur in almost all the early chapters but less often in the second half of the book. Most of the spaces left blank for illustrations and the numerous textual gaps of varying lengths appear in the last third of the manuscript—evidence that it is incomplete. If the manuscript had been finished, these lacunae would have been filled in and the cycle of illustrations completed. The manuscript’s design is indicative of its recipients in the Mughal Empire. The main chapters of the epic following the courts of fifty Iranian kings are not particularly emphasised; some are omitted in the chapter headings. The manuscript begins with the rhymed epic. Missing is one of the two prose introductions, either by the author or the editor Bāysunqur, that usually begin the Iranian versions. Richly illuminated headings ( ‘unvān ) can be found in the early chapters, near the middle of the book (no. 64, p. 634) and in the chapters that deal with Luhrasp’s accession to the throne (no. 72, p. 759), which, since late Timurid times, has been considered the central episode of the epic. Accordingly, one would expect another illumination at the end of the epic, though it is missing here as are a number of other illustrations. The second ‘unvān roughly marks the centre of the projected series of illustrations. It shows the Iranian hero Bīzhan kill- ing the Turanian Humān in a duel, then, clad in his victim’s armour, sneaking through enemy lines (no. 65, p. 654). The Iranian kings were somewhat neglected by the illustrators; they are represented on their thrones or in action in only twenty-three scenes. On the other hand, there are twenty-six illustrations that emphasise the heroic achievements of Rustam. Most of the remaining forty-seven illustrations show the exploits and military achievements of other Iranian heroes. There are fourteen illustrations showing women as protagonists, two of them as witches (no. 30, p. 195 and no. 77, p. 826) and two as rulers (no. 83, p. 914 and no. 87, p. 953). This is a greater number of illustrations of women compared to other pre-Islamic Iranian representations. The Iranian love epic Humāy and Humāyūn by Khvājū Kermānī (1290–1349 or 1352) 4 begins on page 1391, right in the middle of the preface.This text, by the same calligrapher, was also left unfinished.  CPH Notes   |  1  The Mughal Indian series of richly illustrated manuscripts might be based on the model of a work with a similarly extensive cycle and a similar selection: The British Library, London, MS Add. 5600, Rieu II 536; Titley 1977, no. 105, Mughal period, early seventeenth century, 90 illustrations.  | 2  A note inscribed on the left endpaper of the volume mentions the son of Dīvān Sardār Mohkam Chand (d. 1814), First Minister of Mahārājā Ranjīt Sīngh, the first Sikh ruler of Punjab (b. 1780, r. 1797–1839), as the owner of this manuscript: “This (book) belong(s) to [added and corrected later] / Sardar Maharaj Chand Kumari / S /o [son of] / Sardar Mokham Chand Sahib Kumari / Rais azam [illegible, crossed out], Amritsar [written earlier and by a different hand than the first line].” During the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–1846), between the Sikh empire of Punjab and the East India Company, the Shāhnāma manuscript might have been plundered by the English. More than 120 years later, at the end of the 1960s, the book was purchased by Gertrud Rennhard in Delhi. A note inserted in the book on a piece of paper dating from this time states: “Written for: / Diwan Mokham Chand / Courtier of Maharaja Ranjit Singh / Ruler of Punjab 1797–1839 / Diwan Mokham Chand enjoyed the title of Sardar Maharaj, from the Sikh Court. / Sardar Maharaj Mokham Chand was a powerful Courtier and General of Sikh Court. / Indo-Persian style, by Kashmiri Artist / Names of painter and transcriber not known definitely. The most popular writer of those days in the Sikh Court at Lahore was Pandit-Tota Ram. It is believed that this is his work. / It is possible that the book has been written and prepared earlier and presented to Sardar Maharad� [‘d’ crossed out] Mohkam Chand by some one.”  |  3  Manuscripts such as these are not uncommon; see e.g. The British Library, London, inv.no. A.18804, 1719, with 97 illustrations; see Titley 1977, p. 46, no. 112; see also Staatsbibliothek Berlin, ms. Minutoli 134, with 94 illustrations, dated Kashmir 1245H/1830 (Steiner et al. 1971, no. 73); New York Public Library, ms. Spencer, Indo-Pers. 13, with 93 miniatures, c. 1815–1820 (Schmitz 1992, no. III.4, p. 169–175).  |  4  See De Bruijn 2009; and Bürgel 1990. Ca 2017-1/2 (p. 7) The court of King Gayūmars