Rustam kills the elephant, from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi

Reza `Abbasi, attributed to

Rustam kills Zal’s white elephant, from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi. While still a boy, Rustam uses his heroic strength to kill a mad elephant, with his grandfather's mace. Impressed, his father Zal decides to send Rustam on his first mission, to avenge his great-grandfather's death at the fortress of Sipand. Folio, ink, colours and gold on paper, Persian text in nasta`liq script, with painting (on recto), illuminated rubric ("Zal sends Rustam to seize the fortress of Sipand", on verso) and gold-painted borders, from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Abu al-Qasim Firdausi (d. 1022), attributed to the early reign of Safavid Shah `Abbas I (r. 1587-1629), Qazvin, Iran, undated, c. 1590-1600. This is one of twenty-two folios in the Chester Beatty, all from the same partial copy (possibly never fully completed) of Firdausi's Shahnama: ten folios are in a modern binding, twelve are mounted separately. Most of these folios are not directly sequential, and fall into three sets, narrating the earliest kings, Faridun and his descendants, and Rustam.