Shahnama (c.1435)

A millennium after its completion, an epic Persian poem is providing the springboard for a new centre of Persian studies in Cambridge.

Just as this iconic text has nurtured many different fields of study, the Centre will now nurture research and teaching in the fascinating and exotic world of Persian culture and the arts of the book.

Professor Charles Melville

The Shahnama Centre at Pembroke College has opened its doors for the study of Persian culture and arts, marking a new phase for a project that has amassed the largest digital collection of one of the world’s greatest literary epics: the 1,000-year-old Persian ‘Book of Kings’, or Shahnama.

Firdausi’s stirring poem, which was completed in the year 1010, explores the Persian Empire’s history, beliefs, myths and chivalrous code. For the next 800 years, successive court scribes copied and recopied the text, often using the richest of pigments to create exquisite illustrations (almost 100 of which have been brought together in the spectacular Epic of the Persian Kings exhibition currently at The Fitzwilliam Museum).

Professor Charles Melville, Director of the new Centre and an expert on Persian history in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, has led a decade-long study of the Shahnama masterpiece, which is regarded as one of Iran’s national treasures. Over the millennium, many of the manuscripts had become scattered worldwide, some as isolated pages. The aim of the Shahnama Project, initially funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, was to bring together the Book of Kings in an online environment.

First estimates indicated that there could be a few thousand illustrated pages in existence. But, as Professor Melville explains, the true number has surpassed all expectations. ‘What began as a task that involved physically searching out, photographing and documenting each manuscript has taken on a life of its own. Curators and museums are beginning to send us new data, dispersed manuscripts are being reunited, and the corpus now contains over 12,000 images, and counting.’

With the opening of the Shahnama Centre, supported by the Aga Khan Development Network, the Iran Heritage Foundation and the Isaac Newton Trust, the Project can now enter a new phase. ‘Just as this iconic text has nurtured many different fields of study,’ says Professor Melville, ‘the Centre will now nurture research and teaching in the fascinating and exotic world of Persian culture and the arts of the book.’

For more information, please contact Professor Charles Melville (cpm1000@cam.ac.uk).


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