Tahmina Comes into Rustam's Chamber, illustrated folio from a manuscript of the Shahnama of Firdawsi

Unknown artist

c. 1434

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Arthur M. Sackler Museum

Two figures stand in a richly decorated interior, one holding a lamp, while another figure rests on a bed in the background. This Shahnama painting shows the new direction manuscript painting took in the Timurid court workshops of the fifteenth century. Highest quality materials were applied with exquisite draftsmanship at a very small scale and in a two-dimensional space. Although no text is preserved, later compositions based on this painting confirm that it illustrates the Shahnama episode where Tahmina, the beautiful daughter of the King of Samangan, comes quietly at night to Rustam’s chamber to tell him that she wishes to marry him and bear his child. Caught by surprise but enticed by her charm, Rustam spends the night with Tahmina. The painting draw