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Selected images of Costume and Soldiers from a Persian
Bestiary
Iran, Maragheh, 1297-1298 or 1299-1300, and 19th century
The Morgan Library & Museum MS M.500



f.23v Woman riding in horse-drawn cart attacked by dragon being struck by man in armor (modern).

f.25v Man in armor transfixing dragon (modern).

f.36r Bahram Gur hunting wild ass accompanied by his slave girl Fitna (modern).

f.72v Man fighting dragon (modern).

f.78r Men playing polo (modern).

f.79r Scene, Occupational: Fishing -- Two men with sword and hatchet cutting up fish lying in stream; a third man carries away tail of fish; flowering plants. Illustration for chapter on Fish.

f.84r Royal couple entertained by musicians (modern).

f.84v Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (modern).

[All but one of these more complex illustrations with people in the manuscript are marked as "modern" i.e. 19th century.]

[Most of the 13th century illustrations are of this style:]

f.72v Coiled serpent. Illustration for chapter on Viper.

Source: The Morgan Library & Museum MS M.500



The warrior in f.25v is fig. 89, and the warrior in f.23v is fig. 90 of M. GORELIK, "Oriental Armour of the Near and Middle East from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Centuries as Shown in Works of Art", in: Islamic Arms and Armour, ed. ROBERT ELGOOD, London 1979.
p. 36: Marāgheh miniatures, however, continued to portray standard Iranian armour (figs. 89, 90). This may be explained by the fact that prior to the fourteenth century most of the local craftsmen, according to Rashīd al-Dīn were still unable to reproduce Mongol armour.
89, 90. Managi al-Hayyavān by ibn Bakhtishu, Marāfī, c.1294-1299.

[This becomes irrelevant if the manuscript images are 19th century].



The warrior in f.25v is Figure 167 in "The Iconography of a Military Elite: Military Figures on an Early Thirteenth-Century Candlestick (Part II)" by David Nicolle, in Mamlūk Studies Review Vol. 19, 2016
Warrior figure with a full mail hauberk, face-covering mail avential or coif, mail and plated leg armour [perhaps overpainted or restored at a later date], Manāfī al-Ḥayawān manuscript from Maragha, Mongol north-western Iran, 1294–99 AD (Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms. 500, New York, USA)



See also Illustrations of Ilkhanid Mongols and Successors in 14th Century Persia and surrounds
A comparison of Shahnama illustrations from the 14th to 19th centuries
Persian Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers
Index of Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers






























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