"Rustam Kills the White Div", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)

Author Abu'l Qasim Firdausi Iranian

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 455

The basic iconography of this popular tale of heroism was developed by the fourteenth century and continues essentially unchanged. A Mongol-featured Rustam wears his familiar tiger skin while his robe beneath and the saddle blanket of his horse Rakhsh show the familiar Mongol peony flowers. Rustam has just cut off one of the powerful div's legs. Another div pokes its head over the top of the cave while Rustam's guide Ulad, tied to a tree, awaits him in this very busy, compact composition from the First Small Shahnama.

"Rustam Kills the White Div", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings), Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus), Ink, opaque watercolor, silver, and gold on paper

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