TEHRAN (IBNA) -- A folio from the Shah Tahmasp ‘Shahnameh’, one of the “finest illustrated ‎manuscripts in existence” according to Sotheby’s, is expected to fetch between £4m and ‎‎£6m at auction next month.‎
‘The Shahnameh’, also known as the Book of Kings, is an epic poem containing 50,000 rhyming couplets, telling the history of Persia’s rulers. It was written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010, The Guardian reported.
The folio up for auction was made for Shah Tahmasp of Persia in the 16th century. The manuscript was illustrated over the course of two decades by some of the finest artists of the time.
Benedict Carter, head of Sotheby’s Islamic and Indian art department, said the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh was the great version of the manuscript because “it involved such an enormous sense of production, using the greatest artists in the royal atelier