Painting at the bottom of the page featuring six columns of text. The horizontal painting has a golden background, to the scene where it shows a pair of mounted archers, one chasing another along a grassy mound under what could be seen as a brilliantly sunny day.
AKM84, The Fourth Combat of the Rukhs: Furuhil Fights with Zangula

© The Aga Khan Museum

Placed on a larger cream colour page is a smaller page with six columns of 30 lines of text, with one outlined thin rectangle spanning the two center columns.
AKM84, The Fourth Combat of the Rukhs: Furuhil Fights with Zangula, Back

© The Aga Khan Museum

Click on the image to zoom

The Fourth Combat of the Rukhs: Furuhil Fights with Zangula
Folio from a dispersed copy of Firdausi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings)
  • Accession Number:AKM84
  • Place:Western Iran
  • Dimensions:30.5 x 21.2 cm
  • Date:late 13th or early 14th century
  • Materials and Technique:ink, colours, gold, and silver on paper
  • This painting, from the dispersed copy of the “Freer” Shahnameh (Book of Kings), along with that on another folio from the same Shahnameh (AKM22), illustrate stories of Iran’s/Persia’s legendary kings.

     

    “The Fourth Combat of the Rukhs: Furuhil Fights with Zangula” closely follows this important moment in Firdausi’s epic: it is one in a series of events in the continuing “Great War” between Iran and Turan. After tending to matters regarding his accession, Kay Khusrau resumed the stalled campaign against Turan and Afrasiyab. During a lull in the fighting, during which each side awaited the arrival of reinforcements and before the larger battle was again rejoined, seasoned champions on both sides engaged in single combat: mounted warriors—the rukhs—met in a series of knightly duels, eleven of them, Iranian fighting Turanian. The Iranians were almost always victorious. Furuhil’s encounter with Zangula is the fourth in this series.

     

    See AKM20 for an introduction to the “Freer” Shahnameh.

Further Reading

 

The older pictorial format, a narrow horizontal strip with a golden background, is well- suited to the subject: it shows a pair of mounted archers, one chasing another along a grassy mound under what could be seen as a brilliantly sunny day. The Iranian is Furuhil (on the right), a superb archer. The painting captures the moment where one of Furuhil’s poplar-wood arrows pins Zangula’s leg to his horse’s flank, and the horse stumbles. In the moments that follow, the equine’s stumble unseats his dying rider, who is beheaded by Furuhil. The Iranian then fixes the grisly Turanian trophy to his saddle and appropriates his horse.

 

The Aga Khan Museum Collection has four folios from the “Freer” Shahnameh, AKM20, AKM21, AKM22 and AKM84

 

— Eleanor Sims

Note: This online resource is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis. We are committed to improving this information and will revise and update knowledge about this object as it becomes available.

news_icon

Get connected. Stay engaged. Sign up for the latest updates from the Aga Khan Museum