The Khavarannama, written in 1426–27 by Maulana Muhammad ibn Husam (died 1470), chronicles the military exploits of ^cAli, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, and his partisans. It is one of several Persian epic poems that imitate the Shahnama, or Book of Kings, by the post Firdausi. The author's debt to Firdausi is acknowledged especially in this painting, in which the great poet himself, holding a walking stick, gestures to ibn Husam. The painting, with its stocky, round-headed figures, is in the commercial Turkman style of Shiraz. The title of the manuscript derives from the name of ^cAli's main adversary, the king of Khavaran.

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