"Zal in the Simurgh's Nest", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)

Zal in the Simurgh's Nest

Exposed as a baby because his father Sam thought his white hair an attribute of the devil, Zal had been rescued by the Simurgh and taken to her nest on Mount Elburz to be reared there. Rumors of this eventually reach Sam, who comes to reclaim his son and to thank the Simurgh. Here, Zal is seated in a cleft on the mountaintop opposite the bird, whose wattles make her look somewhat like a rooster. The bird has a parrot-like beak, two projections—feathers or ears—from the back of her head, and a long tail ending in two tight curls. Only the head and shoulders of Sam bowing to the ground are visible because all but the very top of the stepped composition at the lower right has been pasted over with text.

In the First Small Shahnama illustration of this story (MMA no. 69.74.1), the Simurgh already appears as the Chinese phoenix, or feng huang. The point chosen in the story—the moment when the bird returns the boy to his father—is a sequel to that in this scene. While both pictures have gold grounds, the contrast between the two is striking.

Mary Lukens Swietochowski in [Swietochowski and Carboni 1994]

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. 8.

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. 8, pp. 71–72, 82–83, ill. p. 83 (b/w).