English: An illustrated leaf from a manuscript of Firdausi’s Shahnameh: Rustam killing the White Div, Persia, Shiraz, Safavid, circa 1560-80

gouache with gold on paper, text above and below the miniature in five columns of nasta‘liq script written horizontally and diagonally in black ink, reverse with a full page of text in five columns, one illuminated heading panel with the title of this episode (kashtan rustam div safid ra) in white nasta‘liq, paper of text areas gold-sprinkled

painting: 25.5 by 20.6cm.

leaf: 29.4 by 23.2cm.

The episode depicted on the present leaf is one of the most recognisable of Shahnameh illustrations, and was a frequent choice for illustration. The central part of the composition here, consisting of a circle of jagged rocks surrounding a dark cave in which the white figure of the div and the figure of Rustam cloaked in his distinctive tiger skin are framed by the dark background, was a standard compositional element that was repeated in many illustrated copies of the Shahnameh from the Timurid period onwards (see, e.g. Brend and Melville 2010, no.47, pp.136-7; Robinson 1980, nos.437, 494, pp.100, 126; Robinson 1976, nos.365, 385, p.119 and col. pl.X; Stchoukine 1959, pl.LXXX; Davis, 2005, vol.1, pp.219, 305). The present example is typical of the Shiraz style of the second half of the sixteenth century.

The episode depicted here occurs after Kay Kaus, the king of Iran, has been blinded and captured by the demons rulers of Mazandaran during his campaign there. Rustam, the warrior great hero of the epic, sets out to free Kay Kaus and discovers that to cure Kay Kavus’s blindness he must apply the liver of the White Div, the fiercest of demons. Rustam slays the White Div and extracts his liver so he can take it to Kay Kaus. The composition here keeps close to the description in the text, which the mentions the swarm of other demons outside the cave whom Rustam despatches on his way to the main fight, describes the cave as a dark hell-like pit, mentions that Rustam’s first furious blow severs the White Div’s leg, and that Olad, Rustam’s guide, was tied up outside the cave (at upper right in the present image). For further details of the episode see Davis 2005, pp.196-230, specifically p.218-220.