The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Two pages with text written in in Persian script the center. The page on the left features a large image in the middle of the text. The image depicts an armored man defeating a creature, surrounded by figures in colorful foliage. The page on the right features a rectangle with golden text that is surrounded by a blue and golden background.

Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020)

1520–37

attributed to Mir Musavvir

(Iranian, c. 1510–1555)

attributed to Abd al-Vahhab

(Persian, active c. 1516)
Iran, Tabriz, Safavid period (1501-1722)
Gum tempera, ink, gold, and silver on paper
Sheet: 47.5 x 32.2 cm (18 11/16 x 12 11/16 in.); Image: 28.4 x 18.5 cm (11 3/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1988.96
Location: 242B Indian Painting(not visible)

Did You Know?

The Shahnameh is a mixture of a mythology and a history of the Iranian people.

Description

The legendary hero Rustam brutally takes the demon chief’s liver blood, needed to cure his king of blindness. Paintings from the Shah-nama made for the Persian ruler Shah Tahmasp (reigned 1524–76) were acclaimed in their day for their brilliant coloring and refinement. Seven of the artists who contributed to this book moved to India to lead the new Mughal painting workshop in the 1550s. They introduced to the Indian artists a more complex color sensibility and preference for presenting faces in three-quarter view, as opposed to in profile.
  • 1520s–1567
    Shah Tahmasp شاه تهماسب یکم‎ [1514–1576], Iran, given to Ottoman Sultan Selim II
    1567–?
    Ottoman Sultan Selim II [1524–1574], Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
    until early 1900s
    Topkapı Palace library, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
    early 1900s–?
    Baron Edmond de Rothschild [1845–1934], Boulogne-Billancourt, France
    ?–October 14, 1988
    Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. [1906–1990]
    October 14, 1988
    (Christie's, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1988–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Arthur Amory Houghton Jr. was an American industrialist who served as the president of Steuben Glass Works, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic.
  • Reif, Rita. "Auctions." The New York Times. 29 July 1988.
    McWilliams, Mary. ""Rustam's Seventh Course: He Slays the White Div": A Painting from the Tahmasp "Shahnama"." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 4 (April 1993): 148-153. Reproduced: p. 150; Mentioned: p. 148-153 www.jstor.org
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced: pp. 166-167
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 229–230
  • Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).
    The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).
  • {{cite web|title=Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020)|url=false|author=Mir Musavvir, Abd al-Vahhab|year=1520–37|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1988.96