Representation of the Black Face of Kaykāvus in the Shahnamah of Shah Tahmasp with a View of the Persian and Ottoman Wars

Abstract

The production of Shahnamah manuscripts during the Ilkhani period was a political endeavor. The kings understood that one way to ensure the survival of the monarchy was to emulate the example of the Pīshdādīan and Kayāniān dynasties in the Persian national epic. Therefore, Persian artists, aligned their work with the political agenda when illustrating the Shahnamah manuscripts. In all manuscripts produced before the Shahnamah of Shah Tahmasp was written, the story of Kaykāvus was illustrated in the same way. In this Shahnamah, however, Kaykāvus's face was depicted in black for the first time. According to historical sources, the Shahnamah of Shah Tahmasp was presented as a gift to the Ottoman court. These points raise the following questions: What inference from the Persian national epic led to the depiction of Kaykāvus with a blackened face? What was the relationship between this interpretation and the behavior of the Ottoman regime? What messages did the Safavid court convey by presenting this Shahnamah to the Ottoman court? This article demonstrates that Persian-Turkish symbols evolved into Turkish-Turkish symbols during the Timurid period. During the Safavid period, Shah Ismail I (Safavid king, 1487-1524) and Sultan Selim I (Ottoman king, 1470-1520) attempted to appropriate the symbols of the Persian national epic as non-Persian/Persian symbols. Therefore, Iranian painters, familiar with the possibilities of deviation from the text, expressed the Safavids' objection to the warlike spirit of the Ottomans by portraying Kaykāvus with a black face.

Keywords

• iran-ottoman wars
• kaykāvus
• persian national epic
• safavid school painting
• the shahnamah of shah tahmasp