Shahnama
Subtitle: the visual language of the Persian book of kings
By: edited by Robert Hillenbrand.
Contributors: Hillenbrand, Robert.; Visual Arts Research Institute, Edinburgh.
Publisher: Ashgate; Routledge
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
Subjects: Firdawsī. -- Illustrations -- Congresses
Genres: Congresses.
Description: "Shahnama: The Visual Language of the Persian Book of Kings presents the first comprehensive examination of the interplay between text and image in the celebrated Persian national epic, the Shahnama, written by the poet Firdausi of Tus. The Shahnama is one of the longest poems ever composed and recounts the history of Iran from the dawn of time to the Muslim Arab conquests of the seventh century A.D. There is no Persian text, in prose or poetry, which has been so frequently and lavishly illustrated."

"Offering insights through a range of varied art-historical approaches to the Shahnama, the essays in this volume reveal how the subtle alterations in text and image serve to document changes in taste and style and can be understood as reflections of the changing role of the national epic in the imagination of Iranians and the equally changing messages - often political in nature - which the familiar stories were made to convey over the centuries."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
"Visual Arts Research Institute, Edinburgh."
Chiefly consists of the proceedings of a conference held in Edinburgh on 12-13 March 2001.