An illustrated folio from the Freer Small Shahnameh, Sawa Shah slain in battle by Bahram Chubina, Iran, circa 1300-1340, ink and opaque pigments on paper heightened with gold and silver, with 31ll. of black naskh arranged in six columns within red rule, verso with 31ll. and a header in gold naskh, folio 30.4 x 21.8cm. The widely dispersed “Freer” Shahnameh (Book of Kings), is the third of the earliest surviving illustrated copies of the Persian national epic, the work of Abu’l-Qasim Mansur Firdausi (d. 1020). Composed around the turn of the 11th century, the Shahnameh conveys through 50,000 rhyming couplets the lives of 50 Iranian kings before the arrival of Islam. The name “Freer Small” reflects the fact that most of the manuscript (text-pages and 45 illustrations) has been in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, for much of the 20th century. Other illustrated folios from this manuscript are in the Aga Khan Museum (AKM20, AKM21, AKM22)In many ways, however, the “Freer” manuscript is unlike the other two, the “First” and the “Second Small” Shahnameh manuscript apart from also being copied in six columns of text. The illustrations, too, are differently treated, they are squarish in shape. Please refer to department for condition report