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Plate 26.8a–b: a) (left) ‘A princely banquet in a garden’, left folio of double page frontispiece (recto) illustration from the Shahnama (Book
of Kings) of Abu’l-Qasim Manur Firdawsi, 1444, Shiraz, Iran. Opaque watercolour, gold and silver on paper, height 32.7cm, width 22cm.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1956.10; b) (right) Manuscript of the Shahnama of Firdawsi, 1444. Opaque
watercolour, gold and silver on paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, J. H. Wade Collection, 1945.169

this case, the ceramic bottle sits in solitary splendour on a tempting to connect the presence of these Chinese visitors
golden dish. 22 with the great variety of Chinese ceramic vessels depicted in
A very similar blue-and-white bottle appears in the next this painting, its connection with a manuscript of 1444
example, a page from a dispersed manuscript of a history of means that this image post-dates the culmination of the
Timur’s life, known as the Zafarnama, which was written for Zheng He voyages by more than a decade. Although
Ibrahim Sultan by his court historian Sharaf al-din Ali historical evidence confirms that the cessation of his travels
Yazdi (Pl. 26.6). Timur once again drinks from a shallow did not signal the end of all contacts between the Timurids
golden bowl while courtiers stand beside him or entertain and the Ming court, the identity of these particular visitors
him. This painting contains the depiction of three different has yet to be established.
Chinese ceramic objects. An attendant grasps the lower The Shahnama manuscript in Paris, to which this page
portion of a stem-cup and a pair of blue-and-white bottles sit belongs, appears to have been produced at the Timurid
on a small golden table; one of these is decorated with a court of Shiraz because its scribe, who signs as Muhammad
swimming bird and the other has a landscape scene. al-Sultani, was the court calligrapher for Ibrahim Sultan. As
The final example is a double-page painting now the latter had died in 1434, a decade before this manuscript
detached from its parent manuscript dated to 1444 that can was produced, the youthful prince depicted in the painting
be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Pl. would appear to be his son and heir, Abdallah b. Ibrahim
26.7). This painting now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (r. 1434–46). This Paris Shahnama and its frontispiece now in
23
(Pls 26.8a–b) suggests that the ceramic collection at Shiraz Cleveland argue for the stability of the Timurid court in
had been augmented since it depicts 18 separate objects. Two Shiraz in the years following Ibrahim Sultan’s death, both
are sets of six bowls of varying sizes and shades of blue. Each with respect to the production of illustrated manuscripts and
group of objects rests on a golden table that is carried by two in maintaining relations with Ming China. The most
men. Another attendant carries a pair of larger blue-and- tangible consequences of that relationship is the continued
white dishes one of which serves to cover the other. The collecting and use of Ming blue-and-white ceramics at court
number of blue-and-white bottles has also grown, the pair functions.
seen in the Zafarnama illustration has now become four. Embroidered textiles and blue-and-white ceramics were
Three bottles sit side-by-side on a small brownish red table not the only kinds of Chinese materials known to the
and a fourth is carried by one of the prince’s attendants. Timurids. Another medium is a kind of heavy coloured and
The most surprising feature of this double-paged decorated paper that differs in several ways from the
frontispiece, however, is the fact that it also depicts three traditional kinds of paper used in Iran and Central Asia for
Chinese men who kneel on the ground behind two groups of the transcription of various kinds of texts. The composition
local courtiers who kneel on small carpets. Although it is of the ink used by Near Eastern scribes required that they

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