From the Harvard Art Museums’ collections Iskandar's Iron Cavalry Battles King Fur of Hind (text, recto; painting, verso), illustrated folio from the Great Ilkhanid Shahnama (Book of Kings)

verso Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1955.167
Title: Iskandar's Iron Cavalry Battles King Fur of Hind (text, recto; painting, verso), illustrated folio from the Great Ilkhanid Shahnama (Book of Kings)
Classification: Manuscripts
Work Type: manuscript folio
Date: c. 1335
Places: Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Tabriz
Period: Ilkhanid period
Culture: Persian
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/216944

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Ink, colors, gold, and silver on paper
Dimensions: folio: 50.2 x 39.5 cm (19 3/4 x 15 9/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Edward W. Forbes
Accession Year: 1955
Object Number: 1955.167
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu; The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

C.F. Kelley, "Persian and Indian Miniature Painting", Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1933), vol. XXVII, fig. pp. 46

Laurence Binyon and J. V. S. Wilkinson, Persian Miniature Painting: Including a Critical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Miniatures Exhibited at Burlington House, January-March, 1931, exh. cat., Oxford University Press (NY) and Oxford University Press (UK) (London, England, 1933), fig. plate XXVI

M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Exhibition of Islamic Art, exh. cat. (San Francisco, 1937), p. 28, no. 42e

Doris Brian, "A Reconstruction of the Miniature Cycle in the Demotte 'Shah-Nameh'", Ars Islamica, Freer Gallery of Art / Smithsonian Institution and University of Michigan (1 January 1939), vol. 6(2), pp. 97-112, no. 30

Eric Schroeder, Persian Miniatures in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1942), pp. 46-48, fig. 6

Ivan Stchoukine, Les peintures du Shan-nameh Demotte, Arts Asiatiques (1958), vol. V, pp. 83-96, pp. 91, 95, group III

Basil Gray, La Peinture Persane, Skira (Geneve, 1961)

Basil Gray, Persian Painting, Skira (New York, NY, 1977), pp. 29, 33-34

"The Rise of Islam", Harvard Magazine (May-June 1979), 99, 5, pp. 22-28, Pg. 25

Maurice Daumas, A History of Technology and Invention: Progress through the Ages, Crown Publishers Inc. (New York, 1979), P. 367, Plate 54

Marianna Shreve Simpson, Arab and Persian Painting in the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1980), pp. 23, 26-27, no. 5, ill.

Oleg Grabar and Sheila Blair, Epic Images and Contemporary History, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL, 1980), page 30, 116-117/figure 30

Johann Christoph Burgel, The Feather of Simurgh: The "Licity Magic" of the Arts in Medieval Islam, New York University Press (New York, NY, 1988), page 175/figure 17

Abolala Soudavar, "The Saga of Abu-Sa'id Bahador Khan: The Abu-Sa'idname", Oxford Studies In Islamic Art XII: The Court of the Il-Khans 1290-1340, Oxford University Press (NY) (Oxford, UK, 1996), page 134/figure 29

Al-Qafilah, Al-Qafilah, Altraiki Printing Press (Dammam, 1997), page 30

Markus Hattstein and Peter Delius, Islam Kunst und Architektur, Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft (France, 2000), Page 387 & 403

Linda Komaroff, ed., The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, 2002), pp135, fig. 160; pp256, num.48

Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 50

Christoph Baumer, The History of Central Asia: The Age of Islam and the Mongols, I. B. Tauris (London, 2016), p. 195, fig. 127

Exhibition History

Arab and Persian Painting, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/10/1981 - 03/09/1981

The Heavenly Court: Persian Poetry and Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/09/1985 - 03/31/1985

Paintings for Princes: The Art of the Book in Islam, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/27/1990 - 03/25/1990

Eyes to the East: Indian, Persian, and Turkish Art Given by Harvard Graduates, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/1990 - 11/25/1990

In Detail: Looking at Persian, Turkish and Indian Pictures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/11/1995 - 01/21/1996

Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture 1256-1353 (The), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/28/2002 - 02/16/2003; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 04/13/2003 - 07/27/2003

Re-View: S231 (Islamic rotation: 5) Heroic Gestes: Epic Tales from Firdawsi's Shahnama, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 06/18/2010 - 11/27/2010

Word and Image in Persian Painting, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2013 - 03/30/2013

A New Light on Bernard Berenson: Persian Paintings from Villa I Tatti, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/20/2017 - 08/13/2017

Subjects and Contexts

Collection Highlights

Google Art Project

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu