Video: The Art of Painting in the Shahnameh
In this lecture from the Library of Congress, Massumeh Farhad provides a closer look at the art of Iran's national epic.
The Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, is perhaps the finest work of literature created by the empires of Persia, or Iran. The poet Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi began work on the epic around 977 CE and finished it by 1010. The Shahnameh is the story of Iran before the Arab conquest, a powerful and ancient empire of great religious and ethnic diversity. Ferdowsi is said to have sought to preserve the Persian history of Iran at a time when the Arabic language, Islam, and Arab culture were fundamentally reshaping the region. The work found instant acclaim and has been passed down through the centuries as the national epic of Iran.
Copies of the Shahnameh were often embellished with lavish illustrations. In this lecture from the Library of Congress, Massumeh Farhad provides a closer look at the art of the Shahnameh and its refinement over time.
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