
Purim: The world’s longest megillah scroll is fit for a queen
May 3, 2022
About the Persian miniature.
May 4, 2022RUSTAM KICKING AWAY THE BOULDER PUSHED BY BAHMAN ATTRIBUTED TO AQA MIRAK, ASSISTED BY QASIM BIN ‘ALI, SAFAVID TABRIZ, CIRCA 1530 Folio 451 from the Shah Tahmasp Shahnama , gouache heightened with silver and gold on paper, panels of Persian nasta’liq verses in four columns above and below between gold and black rules, in gold and coloured ruled margin, gold-sprinkled leaf, the reverse with 22ll. of nasta’liq arranged in four columns, an illuminated heading panel below, in similar margins Painting 8 1⁄4 x 8 3⁄8in. (20.8 x 21.2cm.); folio 18 1⁄2 x 12 1⁄4in. (47.2 x 31.1cm.) Commissioned by Shah Isma’il, circa 1522 Completed under his son Shah Tahmasp, circa 1525–1540; by whom presented in 1568 to Sultan Selim II; thence by descent Baron Edmund de Rothschild, Paris (d.1934), purchased in 1903, thence by descent to Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris, (d.1957), sold from his estate in 1959 to […]