The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA) has a collection of 55 miniatures painted from different manuscripts of “The Book of Kings;” the earliest one dates around 1317 AD, while the latest dates around the 16th century. The majority of the MFA paintings are from the Denman Waldo Ross Collection (36), as well as the Francis Barlett Donation (9). The rest are from other donors.

Studying miniature paintings at the museum was an unforgettable experience. I chose a few to work with, observing with a magnifying glass, drawing, reading some short descriptions, enjoying the colors and strokes of calligraphers and artists of diverse historical periods from the 14th to 17th centuries. I looked through about 15 miniature paintings. My goal was to compare descriptions of jewelry from the text of “Shahnameh” with images from the painting.

For the first part Iused a new Persian to English translation of Shahmaneh by Dick Davis, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, in prose, (some of the poems contained a 900 page volume, while the original included 9 volumes). (N.Y.2004, the book is illustrated with lithographs from Gottingen, Germany for a popular 19th century edition of the poem.)  It gave me an opportunity to search for information about the art of jewelers not only in Persia;

the text clearly demonstrates that for A. Ferdowsi—at least in the translation—shapes, techniques and other aspects of the jewelry were least important.

He was telling us the stories of the history and lives of Kings, which briefly describes types of royal jewelry and their ornamentation or decor. So, all the artists were free to interpret his descriptions in their own way, to follow only for the right kinds of stones, types and forms of jewelry.

According to the “Book of Kings,” A. Ferdowsi was writing about the history of Iran from ancient times to the Arabs invasion (he lived during the 11th century when the Arabs had already been around the country for a while).    

The History of Persia/Iran “has been intertwined of a larger historical region. Greater Iran, which consists of the area from Danube River in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from Caucasus, Caspian Sea and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and Egypt in south ….The Persian Empire proper, begins in the Iron Age.

The Medes (old Persian-Greeks) unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC, then it was powerful Achaemenid Empire (established by Cyrus the Great) (550-330BC), Seleucid Empire (312-63 BC), Parthian and finally Sassanid, which governed Iran for almost 1000 years.

“The Book of Kings” was written in the 11th century and published 300 years later. It’s a monument of poetry and historiography. Fifty thousand poems written in Modern Persian contained information of Persian history from mythical times to the 7th century. Six thousand years of the history of Iran.

The artistic freedom given by A. Ferdowsi to the painters of all historical periods helped them to create their own fashions of different types, shapes, and forms of jewelry from the 14th century forward. Therefore, crowns, diadems, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, hand bands, rings and belts were connected to their eras. The coins, evidently, have some proof of certain fashion or types of crowns and diadems. Other articles of jewelry that connected with the miniatures we can find through wall-paintings, relieves, the sculpture from and in Iran and neighboring countries.

Just as Ari Usni Joselyn described in her research and reproduction of Persian crown “This statue depicting a woman wearing a taj-kulah from 1200CE is Seljuk Iranian in origin. The subject of the statue is unknown but the conical shape of the cap and the ornate leaf shaped pieces of the crown are clearly visible. The Statue is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Remnants of paint on the statue point to the cap being red**”.  

The title of Ferdowsi‘s book clearly illustrated that the main types of jewelry described there will be those of Kings: crowns, diadems, headbands and so.

“The first man to be king, and to establish the ceremonies with the crowns and throne, was Kayumars” (p.1 “The first Kings”)

“Today the throne and crown…are mine” (p.4 “The reign of Tahmures”)

“He sat on his father’s throne, wearing a golden crown according to royal custody” (p.5 “The reign of Jamshid”)

“The royal diadem, and belt, and throne” (p.15 “Zahhak Sees Feraydun in a Dream”) 

“The men’s crowns seen below from the 5th and 16th centuries point to both the use of blue (black - E.N.) silk but also to the aigrette being of varying size and use.” (By Ari Usni Jocelyn)**