Learn/ Educators/ Curriculum Resources/ Art of the Islamic World/ Unit Five: Courtly Splendor in the Islamic World/ Chapter Three: The Making of A Persian Manuscript—The Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp/ Suggested Readings and Resources

Suggested Readings and Resources

Cambridge Shahnama Project. Electronic archive. Cambridge, U.K.: University of Cambridge, 2012.
High school

Ferdowsi, Abolqasem. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. Translated by Dick Davis. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
High school
Basic English translation in a single volume.

Laird, Elizabeth, and Shirin Adl. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. London: Frances Lincoln Limited, 2012.
Elementary school

Leoni, Francesca. "The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
High school

Persian Miniatures from the Shahnameh. DVD. 30 min. New York: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1977.
Traces the development of different styles of illustration of Iran's national epic over three centuries and three distinct dynasties: the Mongol, Timurid, and Safavid.

Persian Miniature: The Gardens of Paradise. DVD. 31 min. New York: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1997.
Spotlights an outstanding Persian miniature from the Safavid period, which is in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Tales from a Book of Kings: The Houghton Shah-nameh. Video. 26 min. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972.
Studies a selection of paintings from a sixteenth-century Persian manuscript created for Shah Tahmasp.

Welch, Stuart Cary. A King's Book of Kings: The Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972.
Middle school; high school

Yalman, Suzan. Based on original work by Linda Komaroff. "The Art of the Safavids before 1600." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
High school


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