Cleveland Museum of Art
Rustam Takes Aim at Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings)
- Date
- c. 1425–50
- Medium
- Gum tempera and ink on paper
- Culture
- Sultanate India, Deccan or Malwa
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 387702
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The central warrior is Iran’s mythic hero Rustam, who approached an enemy army on foot, aiming to shoot the general off his mount. This page is from the oldest surviving illustrated Islamic manuscript made in India. The painting is by a local artist working for a Sultanate patron in India who admired Persian literature and emulated the erudite court culture of Iran. In the upside-down inscription in the top margin: The Heavens cried, “Excellent!” and the Moon said “Well Done!”
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Provenance
- by 1696–after 1718: Muhammad Fazil | ?–c. 1960: Nizam of Hyderabad, sold to Isidore Kahane | c. 1960–by 1987: (Isidore Kahane [1921–2004], Zürich, Switzerland, sold to private collector) | c. 1987–c. 2017: Private Collection, Europe, sold to Francesca Galloway and Sam Fogg | c. 2017–2020: (Francesca Galloway and Sam Fogg, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 2020–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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