In addition to being a great work of literature, in fact, the poem can also be considered a successful example of “mirror for princes,” a popular genre in the medieval and early modern Islamic world intended for the education and edification of rulers.

The publication of this book commemorates the one thousandth anniversary of the completion of the Shahnama, the Persian national epic, which was written down in more than 50,000 couplets by the poet Firdausi. It also celebrates the most lavishly illustrated version of this text, a manuscript produced for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, who ruled Iran from 1524 to 1576. The Metropolitan Museum is fortunate to own 78 of the 258 illustrations to this text, a selection of which is on view in the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery of Later Persian Art, open from November 2011. Thanks to the generosity of the Iranian-American community and the annual NoRuz at the Met Benefit it has held in recent years at the Metropolitan, all of the illustrations to Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama are being published in color for the first time in a single volume. Held in collections across America, Europe, and the Middle East, these illustrations may never again be physically reunited, making this book an important resource for lovers of sixteenth-century Persian painting. By printing a facsimile of the illustrations, we hope that readers will experience some of the wonder that the young Tahmasp must have felt when he opened his manuscript. The original book was large, but not too big to lift. Inside its covers, stories and pictures of battles and trysts, kings and heroes, would have unfolded as he turned the pages. Iranians still know every twist and turn of many of these tales. For those unfamiliar with the Shahnama, its vividly painted illustrations provide an excellent introduction.

The publication of this book marks 1,004 years since the completion of the Shahnama, the Persian national epic, which was written down in more than 50,000 couplets by the poet Firdausi. It also celebrates the most lavishly illustrated version of this text, a manuscript produced for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, who ruled Iran from 1524 to 1576. The Metropolitan Museum is fortunate to own 78 of the 258 illustrations to this text, a selection of which is on view in the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery of Later Persian Art. Thanks to the generosity of the Iranian-American community and the annual NoRuz at the Met Benefit it has held in recent years at the Museum, all of the illustrations to Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama were published in color for the first time in 2011 in a single-volume edition. The present volume, which includes an extended introduction and a concise synopsis of each narrative episode, will enable a broader audience to appreciate this exceptional manuscript. Held in collections across North America, Europe, and the Middle East, these illustrations may never again be physically reunited, making this book an important resource for lovers of sixteenth-century Persian painting. By printing a facsimile of the illustrations, we hope that readers will experience some of the wonder that the young Tahmasp must have felt when he opened his manuscript. The original book was large, but not too big to lift. Inside its covers, stories and pictures of battles and trysts, kings and heroes, would have unfolded as he turned the pages. Iranians still know every twist and turn of many of these tales. For those unfamiliar with the Shahnama, its vividly painted illustrations provide an excellent introduction.

Composed in the tenth century by the poet Firdowsi, the Shah-nameh or Book of Kings is Iran's central literary work, a historical epic peopled with monarchs—some of inspiring goodness, others of unmatched wickedness—handsome paladins, beautiful maidens, malevolent witches, and treacherous demons. The particular manuscript of the Shah-nameh introduced here by Stuart Cary Welch, Curator of Indian and Islamic Painting at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, is the most sumptuous one ever produced. Containing scores of paintings where other sixteenth-century Shah-nameh manuscripts contain a dozen, the Houghton Shah-nameh (identified by the name of its owner, Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.) is thought to have been commissioned about 1522 by Shah Isma'il, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, as a present for his son, Prince Tahmasp. Court artists and craftsmen continued their work on the 759 folios for the better part of two decades; as a consequence, the book offers a fascinating mixture of artistic styles. The extraordinary quality of the paintings was known even in Shah Tahmasp's time. One commentator wrote then of Sultan Muhammad's page representing The court of Gayumars: "The boldest painters hung their heads in shame before it." While that superb image, reproduced here in color and gold, is called by Stuart Cary Welch "perhaps the greatest painting in Iranian art" others of the pages he has selected for color reproduction and special comment are clearly in the same area of merit. (A number of these 8 leaves, along with others not reproduced here, were presented to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mr. Houghton in 1970). In addition to tutoring the reader in the elements of early Safavid painting and the differing personalities of the masters who contributed to Shah Tahmasp's book, Mr. Welch explains the action in each of the illustrated scenes. Pictorial "close-ups" for each scene permit one to savor their details, exquisite, charming, or astonishing. When A King's Book of Kings first appeared, in 1972, as part of the 2500th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Persian empire, reviewers called it "important and handsome" and "a delight, an education!' And so it is.

Editorial Assistant Rachel High talks to Curator Maryam Ekhtiar about Nauruz, the Persian New Year, and the Met's latest publication of The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp.

Research Assistant Courtney A. Stewart explores the influence of the Shahnama (Book of Kings) on the work of several contemporary Iranian artists.

Research Assistant Julia Cohen highlights a number of folios from the most influential works of Persian literature that are on view in Bazm and Razm: Feast and Fight in Persian Art and the Department of Islamic Art's permanent galleries.

Alzahraa K. Ahmed and other curators raise awareness about cross-cultural connections in a series of informal gallery talks on artifacts from the Arab lands and ancient Near East.

Artists from the Qara Quyunlu, Aq Quyunlu, and Timurid court studios were brought together and their work helped form a new Safavid style of painting.

Publisher and Editor in Chief Mark Polizzotti highlights several of the Editorial Department's recent publications currently available for purchase or digital download.