King's Book of Kings

Composed in the tenth century by the poet Firdowsi, the Shah-nameh or Book of Kings is Irans central literary work, a historical epic peopled with monarchs—some of inspiring goodness, others of unmatched wickedness—handsome paladins, beautiful maidens, malevolent witches, and treacherous demons. The particular manuscript of the Shah-nameh introduced here by Stuart Cary Welch, Curator of Indian and Islamic Painting at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, is the most sumptuous one ever produced.