Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama (1330–35): Art, History and Details

Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama (1330–35) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this intense painting, Bahram Gur plunges his sword into the breast of a dragon. A favorite character from Iran's pre-Islamic history, Bahram Gur (reigned 420–38 CE) was a popular ruler of the Sasanian dynasty and a great hunter. He took the name "Gur," meaning onager (a wild ass), because it was his preferred game, although he also excelled at killing dragons. As evidenced by this illustration's rock formations, tree trunk, and dragon, Iranian painting in the Mongol period borrowed numerous stylistic and spatial elements from Chinese models. With the surging landscape and writhing dragon rendered with equal energy, this is a picture of extraordinary unity and concentration.

Object facts

• Title: Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama
• Date: 1330–35
• Culture: Iran, Tabriz, Ilkhanid period (1256-1353)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 45.8 x 34.4 cm (18 1/16 x 13 9/16 in.); Image: 19.5 x 29.5 cm (7 11/16 x 11 5/8 in.); Text area: 41 x 29.5 cm (16 1/8 x 11 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1943.658.a

A detail from the museum

The Shahnama, a poem written by Firdawsi around 1010, tells the history of ancient Iran.

Collection credit

Grace Rainey Rogers Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Watson, Arnold Talbot and Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain). Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art; Patrons: His Majesty the King, His Majesty Rizā ShāH Pahlavi. 7th January to 28th February, 1931, Royal Academy of Arts, London. 1st ed. London: Office of the Exhibition [Printed by Gee & Co.], 1931.
• Erdman, Kurt. "La Mostra d'arte Persiana a Londra." Dedalo XI (April 1931).
• Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), Laurence Binyon, Basil Gray, and J. V. S. Wilkinson. Persian Miniature Painting. Including a Critical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Miniatures Exhibited at Burlington House, January-March, 1931. London: Oxford University Press, 1933.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.