Title: Ardavan’s slave-girl Gulnar with the young Ardashir
Date: painting dated 934 AH (1527–8 AD)
Location: Tabriz, Iran
Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; margins heavily sprinkled with gold
Dimensions: 47.3 x 32cm (folio); 27.1 x 17.1cm (written surface, recto); 20.8 x 17.1cm (illustration, verso)
Accession Number: MSS 1030, folio 516
Other Notes:
Gulnar and Ardashir lie together under the covers in an embrace, with their slippers neatly arranged below. The rope which Gulnar used to lower herself down from the roof of her pavilion is tied around one of the crenellations to the left.
This is the only dated painting in the manuscript. The date appears in the frieze above the arch, ‘The edifice was completed during the course of the year 934’ (1427–8 AD).
[For the Shahnamah of Shah Tahmasp, see MSS 1030]
Script:
text copied in a superior nasta‘liq script, with 22 lines to the page, arranged in 4 columns, two to a couplet; headings (on the recto and verso) in riqa‘
Bibliography:
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.307, p.268.
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