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Shapur occupies the fortress of the Ghassanian king Tahir
(يحتل شابور حصن الملك الغساني طاهر)

Title	Shapur occupies the fortress of the Ghassanian king Tahir
Title Original	يحتل شابور حصن الملك الغساني طاهر
Publication Date:	Late thirteenth century or beginning of the fourteenth century
Publication Place	Western Iran - Aga Khan Museum
Subject	Ink, colours, gold and silver on paper
Type	Other
Language	Undetermined
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	Yes
Physical Dimensions	26.3 × 19.3 سم
Library:	Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID	AKM17.1, AKM17.2
Record ID	object;EPM;ca;Mus21;17;ar
Library Location	Aga Khan Museum
Date	Late thirteenth century or beginning of the fourteenth century
Notes	This page is from the scattered “Second Small” copy of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), which depicts a period related to the history of the Sassanid king Shapur II (r. 304-79). In fact, as for the historical part of the Shahnameh, the “Second Small” version, this particular panel appears to be the first recorded image of a series of only eight images. The active persons in this story are the Arab Ghassanid king Tahir and his daughter Malika (born from his marriage to a princess Sassanid Naubhar) and the Sassanian king Shapur II (reigned 309-79) and Tahir, the “predatory lion,” captured Naubhar, the daughter of Shah Narsi, in a campaign that reached the Sassanid capital in the city of Ctesiphon. The princess was forcefully taken to the house of the Ghassanian prince. Their daughter was of great beauty and her father named her queen, and her mother informed her about her origin and circumstances. Meanwhile, the Persian Sassanid forces arrived under the command of Sharpur Shah, Nasiri's grandson (and thus Malika's cousin) launched a retaliatory campaign on Tahir's lands where the people fled away until they reached Yemen. Among those refugees found in an abandoned fort was Tahir's daughter Malika, but Shapur and his forces pursued them. The arrival of the Sassanid army is shown in this painting.
Sample Text	“Shapur occupies the fortress of the Ghassanian king Tahir” in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;ca;Mus21;17;ar
Bu sayfanın künyesi	MWNF Working Number: CA1 17
Seçili bibliyografya	[1] See Simpson, Marianna Shreve,The Illustration of an Epic. The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts, New York / London: Garland, 1979: 380–82.The “First Small” Shahnameh has nearly eight times as many—including another version of this painting; but its illustrative program is also two and one-half times larger: Simpson 1979, 373–8; Sims, Table I, 14th-Century Illustrated Shahnameh MSS (Eleanor Sims, The Tale and the Image [a catalogue of historical and Shāhnāmah manuscripts and paintings in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art] (Volume XXV, forthcoming in 2019).

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Shapur occupies the fortress of the Ghassanian king Tahir

(يحتل شابور حصن الملك الغساني طاهر)

Publication Date Late thirteenth century or beginning of the fourteenth century

Publication Place Western Iran - Aga Khan Museum

Subject Ink, colours, gold and silver on paper

Type Other

Language Undetermined

Digital Yes

Manuscript Yes

Physical Dimensions 26.3 × 19.3 سم

Library Museum With No Frontiers

Library Asset ID AKM17.1, AKM17.2

Record ID object;EPM;ca;Mus21;17;ar

Library Location Aga Khan Museum

Date Late thirteenth century or beginning of the fourteenth century

Notes This page is from the scattered “Second Small” copy of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), which depicts a period related to the history of the Sassanid king Shapur II (r. 304-79). In fact, as for the historical part of the Shahnameh, the “Second Small” version, this particular panel appears to be the first recorded image of a series of only eight images. The active persons in this story are the Arab Ghassanid king Tahir and his daughter Malika (born from his marriage to a princess Sassanid Naubhar) and the Sassanian king Shapur II (reigned 309-79) and Tahir, the “predatory lion,” captured Naubhar, the daughter of Shah Narsi, in a campaign that reached the Sassanid capital in the city of Ctesiphon. The princess was forcefully taken to the house of the Ghassanian prince. Their daughter was of great beauty and her father named her queen, and her mother informed her about her origin and circumstances. Meanwhile, the Persian Sassanid forces arrived under the command of Sharpur Shah, Nasiri's grandson (and thus Malika's cousin) launched a retaliatory campaign on Tahir's lands where the people fled away until they reached Yemen. Among those refugees found in an abandoned fort was Tahir's daughter Malika, but Shapur and his forces pursued them. The arrival of the Sassanid army is shown in this painting.

Sample Text “Shapur occupies the fortress of the Ghassanian king Tahir” in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;ca;Mus21;17;ar

Bu sayfanın künyesi MWNF Working Number: CA1 17

Seçili bibliyografya [1] See Simpson, Marianna Shreve,The Illustration of an Epic. The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts, New York / London: Garland, 1979: 380–82.The “First Small” Shahnameh has nearly eight times as many—including another version of this painting; but its illustrative program is also two and one-half times larger: Simpson 1979, 373–8; Sims, Table I, 14th-Century Illustrated Shahnameh MSS (Eleanor Sims, The Tale and the Image [a catalogue of historical and Shāhnāmah manuscripts and paintings in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art] (Volume XXV, forthcoming in 2019).