AN ILLUSTRATED PRINTED COPY OF ABU'L-QASIM FIRDAWSI'S (D. AH 416/1024-5 AD) SHAHNAMA (BOOK OF KINGS)
Tabriz, Iran, mid-19th century

Persian lithographed poetry book, printed in nasta’liq script, 634 pages of the main text arranged in six columns, plus additional texts and index, 69 illustrations, calligraphy by Mirza Ali, son of Mohammad Javad Tabrizi, printed by Ahmad Agha, merchant bookseller in Tabriz, during the reign of Nasser ul Din Qajar (r. 1848-1896), in tooled dark green cloth binding, each page 34cm x 21.5cm.

In the 19th century, both Iran and India, especially the respective cities of Tabriz and Bombay, witnessed the establishment of lithographic printing (chāp-i sangī) presses. Lithography in Iran constituted at first a continuation of the local tradition of manuscript production, simply equipped with a different set of technical means. It later developed into an artform on its own, on which sadly not enough studies have been carried out.

One of the most praised illustrators and acclaimed press pioneer of this period in Iran is Mirza Ali Qoli Xu'i. According to Marzolph, he must have worked in Tabriz in his early days (1848), where he produced a Khamsa of Nizami. Shortly after, his steps can be traced in Tehran (1851), prolifically working at Nasser ul Din Shah's court. Most printed illustrations of the mid-19th century tend to be attributed to Mirza Ali Qoli Xu'i. Nevertheless, the only work bearing his signature is a Shahnama, similar to ours, illustrated in Karimzade Tabrizi's monograph The Lives & Art of Old Painters of Iran (Vols. I, II and III, London, 1985-1991, p. 397, no. 683), which has been identified as the first illustrated Iranian edition of the Persian national epic (U. Marzolph, Mirza Ali Qoli Xu'i: Master of Persian Lithograph Illustration, Annali dell’Università degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, 1999, pp. 184 - 187).