Slaying the Dragon Rectangular Pillow

This dramatic painting illustrates the third of seven challenges, or courses, that Prince Isfandiyar went through on his perilous path to freeing his sisters from the captivity in Turan. His father, Shah Gushtasb, set increasingly difficult tests for him to meet before he would agree to resign and raise him to the throne. Knowing from his prisoner and guide that he would encounter a dragon on his route, the Prince ordered a two-horse cart to be built with a cabin that he and his swords and spears could hide in. The painting shows the moment of confrontation between the terrified horses and the dragon, soon to be impaled on the spears and slashed by Isfandiyar’s sword.

This painting (dated ca. 1530), by Qasim Ibn ’Ali, an artist from Shiraz, Iran, depicts a story form The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. The Shahnameh (also referred to as Shahnama, “The Book of Kings”), is a thousand-year old epic poem written by one of the greatest Persian poets Ferdowsi over the course of more than thirty years (ca. 977 to 1010). Consisting of over 50,000 couplets, The Shahnameh is the world’s longest epic poem written by a single person. It begins with the creation of the world and ends with the Islamic conquest of Persia in the seventh century, telling the mythical and historical past of The Persian Empire.

The painting is a page from a royal manuscript produced by Shah Tahmasp (regency 1524-33) of Safavid dynasty (1501–1722) who commissioned fifteen calligraphers and painters from regions across The Persian Empire to illustrate the epic stories of The Shahnameh. The collection, known as The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, is regarded as the most beautiful amongst the illustrated editions of The Shahnameh and an influential point in the art of the Persian miniature.

Learn more about The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp and see this and seventy-seven more paintings from the collection on The Met museum website and tell us what you think.