Anushirvan displays his bow skills before the palace gate, from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi

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Anushirvan displays his bow skills before the palace gate, folio from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) of Firdausi. Detached folio, ink, pigments and gold on paper, later mounted onto gold-flecked card, Persian text with chapter-heading and painting, probably Tabriz, Iran, c. 1300. This folio is from a dispersed manuscript known to scholars as the "First Small Shahnama", of which seventy-seven folios are now in the Chester Beatty. The "Small Shahnama" manuscripts are the earliest known illustrated examples of the Book of Kings (Shahnama), the epic Persian poem composed c. 1010 by Firdausi. Two manuscripts are dispersed, and a third is in the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC. Of small format, these three manuscripts are undated, but usually attributed to c. 1300 on stylistic grounds. Details of iconography confirm that production was after the Mongol invasions of Iran and Iraq, and the establishment of Ilkhanid rule in 1258.