A prince confides a troubling dream to his wife in a curtained bed

Inside a canopied bed hung with green, red and blue drapery, a robed woman in orange and a man in white with a plumed turban sit together, a small vessel passing between their hands, while an attendant beside them holds a tall candle. In the adjoining courtyard, figures in patterned robes gather beneath a blossoming pink tree and a red-railed balcony, watched by attendants at doorways below. Nasta'liq verse panels fill the page above and below the scene.

The Shahnama, or Book of Kings, is the Persian national epic: a verse history of Iran from its first kings to the Arab conquest, completed around 1010 by the poet Firdausi of Tus (c. 940–1020). Its illustrations were painted in later centuries for the rulers and patrons who commissioned copies. Illustrated manuscripts survive from the Ilkhanid period onward, from the First Small Shahnama of the early fourteenth century to Shah Tahmasp's great copy made in Tabriz, and later volumes from Qazvin, Herat and Bijapur in the Deccan. Leaves from these dispersed manuscripts are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.