"The Combat of Rustam and Puladvand", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)

The Combat of Rustam and Puladvand

Afrasiyab, in despair at the success of the Iranian war of revenge, which he attributed largely to Rustam's prowess, begged Puladvand, a div-like king from the mountains of Chin who has enormous strength and battle skills, to come and rid the world of that hero. In the ensuing battle Puladvand unhorses four of the most renowned of the Iranian paladins to the dismay of the Iranian army. He and Rustam then meet in single combat. Rustam manages a crushing blow with his mace to his enemy's head, but Puladvand does not die. In a wrestling match Rustam dashes Puladvand to the ground, and sure that he has slain him, goes back to his army. Puladvand is not dead, however, and withdraws with his forces.

In the miniature, Puladvand, on a white horse, strikes at Rustam with his sword and appears to be reeling from Rustam's blow with an odd-looking weapon, probably of Central Asian origin, which appears to be a kind of mace that functions as a flail. This miniature seems to have evolved from the imagination of the artist, rather than from a model, as with other paintings in this manuscript. Usually the final wrestling match is illustrated, as in the Freer and First Small Shahnamas.[1]

Mary Lukens Swietochowski in [Swietochowski and Carboni 1994]

Notes:

1. Simpson, M. S., The Illustration of an Epic; The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts. New York, 1979, pp. 356, 371, listed but not illustrated.

Ph. Walter Schulz, Leipzig, Germany (by 1914); Professor O. Moll, Düsseldorf, Germany ; Monroe C. Gutman, New York (by 1929–d. 1974; bequeathed to MMA)

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s," February 1–May 1, 1994, no. 22.

Schulz, Ph. Walter. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei. Vol. vols. I, II. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. vol. 1, pp. 74–75.

Masuya, Tomoko. "The Condition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Small Shahnama and the Reconstruction of its Text." In Poetry and Epic Images, edited by Marie Lukens Swietochowski, and Stefano Carboni. New York, 1994. pp. 129–45.

Swietochowski, Marie, Stefano Carboni, Tomoko Masuya, and Alexander H. Morton. Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images : Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 22, pp. 98–99, ill. pl. 22 (b/w).