The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 8 (April, 1971)

IIJ/and it further attests to the book's royal origin. Dust-Muhammad alsomentions two other painters, Aga-Mirak and Mir Musavvir, "two Sayyidswho painted in the royal library, illustrating especially a royal Shahnamehand a Khamseh of Nizami, so beautifully that the pen is inadequateto describe their merits." It is almost certain that the former is anotherreference to our manuscript (which, as we have seen, contains aminiature inscribed by Mir Musavvir), while the latter refers to a fragmentaryKhamseh dated 1539 to 1543, now in the British Museum (Or.2265).Inasmuch as all librarians' and owners' commentaries have vanishedfrom the Shah-nameh (if indeed they ever existed), its peregrinationsfrom the time when Dust-Muhammad's inscribed miniature was addeduntil 1800 are uncertain, though its extraordinarily fresh condition, showingfew ill effects from damp, insects, or many other hazards of Easternlibraries, proves that it was treated with due regard and care. In 1800,the book was in the imperial Ottoman library in Istanbul, where synopsesof the subjects depicted were written on the protective sheets coveringeach miniature. These synopses are the work of Muhammad 'Arifi, alibrarian in the service of the Turkish Sultan Selim II (reigned 1789-1807).After 1800, the Houghton manuscript returned to the shadows ofthe Ottoman library, from which it emerged sometime prior to 1903,when it was one of the major items in an exhibition of Islamic art heldin Paris at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, to which it was lent by BaronEdmond de Rothschild. Since that time, the Shah-nameh has remained inEurope and America, although it was not included in any of the majorexhibitions of Islamic art held later in Munich (1910), Paris (1912), London(1931), or New York (1941). Mr. Houghton acquired it in 1959, andhe has lent miniatures from it to several smaller exhibitions held in NewYork recently. The first of these was held at the Grolier Club in the springof 1962; the second was a benefit for the St. Paul's School art programat Knoedler's in 1968; and a third was The Classical Style in Islamic Paintingin the Morgan Library, 1968. A single miniature was lent to the tenthanniversary exhibition of the Asia Society in 1970.Contents78 Pictures from a World of KiHeroes, and DemonsStuart C. WelchThe Temperament ofJuan GrisDouglas CooperNew York SkyscrapersArnold LehmanRecent AccessionsThe Metropolitan Museum of Art BulletinVOLUME XXIX, NUMBER 8 APRIL 1971Published monthly from October to June and quarterly from July to September. Copyrightngs, ? 1971 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York,N. Y. 10028. Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subscriptions $7.50 a year.Single copies seventy-five cents. Sent free to Museum members. Four weeks' notice requiredfor change of address. Back issues available on microfilm from University Microfilms,313 N. First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Volumes I-XXXVII (1905-1942) available as a358 clothbound reprint set or as individual yearly volumes from Arno Press, 330 MadisonAvenue, New York, N. Y. 10017, or from the Museum, Box 255, Gracie Station, New York,N. Y. 10028. Editor of Publications: Leon Wilson. Editor-in-chief of the Bulletin: Katharine363 H. B. Stoddert; Assistant Editor: Susan Goldsmith; Design Consultant: Peter Oldenburg.371 Photographs, unless otherwise noted, by the Metropolitan Museum's Photograph Studio342