Heroic times

The year 2010 marked the millennium of the completion of the Persian Book of Kings. Written by the poet Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi, this epic ranks among the greatest works of world literature: in over 50,000 verses it relates the history of the kings of ancient Iran from their mythical beginnings up to the Arab conquest and the introduction of Islam in 642 AD. As the millennium approached, the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin and the Oriental Department of the Berlin State Library joined forces to foster a renewed appreciation of the Persian masterwork. Beyond the sublime poetry itself, the focus of their project was the art it has inspired. As a literary work, the Shahnama is practically unrivalled for the impulses it has provided to the Persian art of illustrating books. The Museum of Islamic Art and the Oriental Department of the Berlin State Library, therefore, seized this unique opportunity to make some of their most splendid treasures accessible to the public, the wide range of early Shahnama illustrations from the 14th century from the famous Diez Albums kept in the Berlin State Library constituting a particularly impressive case in point. The exhibition included further rare examples of Persian and Indian manuscript illustration, ceramics, lacquer work, weapons, early printed books, textiles, valuable documents and working notes, as well as pre-Islamic Iranian works of art: both holdings of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, as well as important loans from Edmund de Unger, the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin (DHM), and several private collectors.