AKM52, Gushtasp Puts Isfandiyar in Chains, Front
© The Aga Khan Museum
AKM52, Gushtasp Puts Isfandiyar in Chains, Back
© The Aga Khan Museum
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Gushtasp Puts Isfandiyar in Chains
Folio from a manuscript of Shahnameh (Book of Kings)
- Accession Number:AKM52
- Place:Iran, Shiraz
- Dimensions:32.8 x 23.3 cm
- Date:1494
- Materials and Technique:opaque watercolour, ink, and gold on paper
The Shahnameh (Book of Kings) is an epic poem completed in 1010 that relates the semi-legendary history of pre-Islamic Iran through the reigns of 50 kings, from Creation through the Arab conquests of the 7th century. One of its main themes is the relationship between fathers and sons; in the poem, these are often fraught.
Further Reading
This illustration, from a late 15th-century copy of the Shahnameh, depicts the reviled ruler Gushtasp enthroned in a landscape as his son Isfandiyar is brought to him in chains, having been falsely accused of planning to overthrow his father. Ironically, this is a crime that Gushtasp himself is guilty of committing years earlier. Gushtasp eventually orders Isfandiyar released from prison, but only after the enemy Arjasp subjects his army to a series of crushing defeats and Gushtasp requires his son’s military assistance.[1]
— Michael Chagnon
Notes
[1] For an overview of Gushtasp as both a historical and literary figure, see Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Gostasp,” [A. S. Shabazi], http://www.iranicaonline.org/.
References
Encyclopaedia Iranica, http://www.iranicaonline.org/
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