Manuchihr and the Iranians attack the army of Tur

Illustrations of Jalayrids from a late 14th Century Shahnama

The figures wear contemporary dress or dress of no latter than the date of the illustrations.


King Minuchihr of Iran kills the fleeing Turanians
Shah-nama.
From the Sarai Albums
Tabriz, second half of 14th century
Hazine 2153, folio 102a
Source: Mongols and Painting under the Jala'ir



Minūchihr Kills Tūr by Spearing Him in the Back (fig. 17).

    Farīdun sends his grandson, Minūchihr, to fight Tūr and his army. The two armies meet, and the chief of the Turks slaughters many. Tūr is soon surrounded and is speared in the back and killed by Minūchihr while he is trying to escape.
    The painting has been pasted in the album without having been cut from an above text which describes a scene immediately preceding what is shown in this miniature. The important action takes place in the lower part of the painting. Minūchihr is on a horse galloping from left to right; he holds a spear in his right hand and the horse’s bridle in his left. (There is a faintly visible drawing of his left arm holding the spear.) The spear is stuck in the back of Tūr who is bent forward and about to fall from his horse. The other soldiers taking part in the fighting appear at the extreme bottom and the upper right. On the left is a row of horsemen, with trumpets and drums, and a standard-bearer. The pink-beige landscape forms a high horizon and extends beyond the frame. The sky is dark blue. An off white, grey, brown, blue, red and gold predominate the painting.
Text source: "Four Istanbul Albums and Some Fragments from Fourteenth-Century Shah-Namehs" by Nurhan Atasoy, pp. 19-48 in Ars orientalis; the arts of Islam and the East Vol. 8 (1970)



Referenced as Plate 47 in: 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
47 Miniature from Shāh-Nāmeh, Tabriz, c.1370-1380. (Topkapu Saray Museum. Hazine 2153, fol. 102a)

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