"The First Combat of Gav and Talhand", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)

The First Combat of Gav and Talhand

The battle illustrated was the first of three that resulted in the invention of the game of chess. Two Indian princes, who were half-brothers, contended for the throne. The elder and wiser, Gav, tried to avoid warfare and, when victorious, allowed his brother to return to his palace. A second battle ended with the same result. For the third conflict, a river and moats dug for the purpose provided a battleground from which there was no retreat. Talhand, finally hungry, thirsty, and seeing no escape from wind, sun, and the endless clash of arms, died atop his elephant. To help his grieving mother understand what had happened, Gav invented the game of chess, in which the losing king is not killed but whose life nonetheless comes to an end when there is no escape—as indicated by the defective Persian verb shah mat, or checkmate. Here, the two princes are enthroned upon their war elephants. Each has a dark-skinned, partly nude Indian mahout seated behind him. This is a convention for scenes with elephants, which are apparently associated with India whether the story takes place there or in Iran. Mounted archers and other warriors can be seen in the background, and heads and limbs are ranged along the foreground.

In the Small Shahnama a later part of the narrative is illustrated: Gav is shown mourning over the body of his brother,[1] so clearly there was no influence of the one manuscript on the other.

Mary Lukens Swietochowsky in [Swietochowsky and Carboni 1994]

Notes:

1. M. S. Simpson. The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts. New York, 1979, p. 375 (Chester Beatty Library, Ms. 104.68); not illustrated either in Simpson or in A.J. Arberry, M. Minovi, and E. Blochet, The Chester Beatty Library: A Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts and Miniatures. J. V. S. Wilkinson, Dublin, vol. I, 1959.

Ph. Walter Schulz, Leipzig (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. 46.

Schulz, Ph. Walter. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei. Vol. vols. I, II. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. vol. 1, pp. 74–75, ill. vol. 2, pl. 17.

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. 46, pp. 124–25, ill. pl. 46 (b/w).