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The Baysunghur Shahnameh (Persian: شاهنامه بایسُنغُری) is an illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran. The work on this manuscript was started in 1426 at the order of Baysunghur Mirza, the Timurid prince, and was completed on 5 Jumada I833/31 January 1430, four years later. It is now in the museum of Golestan Palace, in Tehran, Iran, and regarded as a key masterpiece of the Persian miniature.

According to the preface, apparently written by Baysunghur himself for this volume, and usually copied in later manuscripts, it is not a copy of a previous manuscript, it is prepared by comparing several older manuscripts. But the purpose of this comparison was not to achieve greater fidelity to Ferdowsi's original Shahnameh, it was to modernize the language of the text and to add verses to it. Because of this, the Baysunghur Shahnameh is one of the most voluminous manuscripts of Shahnameh, consisting of some 58,000 verses (today's version of Shahnameh consists of about 50,000 verses). The value of this manuscript is not because of its text, but on its artistry. Written in Nastaʿlīq script by Jafar Tabrizi, it has 31 lines per page, it has 346 folios, and 21 miniatures of the Herat School and is one of the most important works in this school. It is set in 6 columns, which is a nod to tradition. Modern Shahnamehs were being set in 4 columns. Earlier shahnamehs have had more crammed spreads with less pages and more illustrations. The Baysunghur atelier also produced a shahnameh without any illustrations earlier than this one. With the production of this earlier shahnameh and the Naysunghur Shahnameh, new horizons were being explored in book design within the Timurid period. Beside the Demotte Shahnameh and the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, the Baysunghur Shahnameh is one of the most important and famous manuscripts of the Shahnameh. It has been shown in London in 1931, and at the exhibition Masterpieces of Persian Painting at the Museum of Tehran in 2005.

It is included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register of cultural heritage items.

Miniatures

The miniatures found in the Baysunghur Shahnameh were very well executed with bright colors and crisp lines and were revolutionary for the time. There are 20 illustrations plus one double image for the frontispiece, unlike other versions which had over 100 images sometimes. The illustration is supposed to depict what is being talked about in the passage it is accompanied with. But, since there are so few illustrations, they give their respective passages more importance than others without an image. It is likely that Baysunghur chose the 21 subjects for the miniatures himself; several are unusual choices for illustrations, and on subjects relevant to a prince impatient to inherit (which he never did). The frontispiece shows a prince who was probably a portrait of Baysunghur. There are other possible portraits of the price throughout the miniatures, but all show events that occurred before his rule and birth. The illustrations follow the tradition of the Shahnameh in most senses. There are 6 enthronement scenes, and 9 battle or killing scenes. All Shahnamehs have these motifs and without them it would not truly qualify as a book of kings. Some of the miniatures show new ideas that had not been shown in earlier Shahnameh versions. These include Luhrasp enthroned, combat between Rustam and Barzu, Rustam and Isfandiyar shaking hands, Gulanr falling in love with Ardashir, and Yazdagird giving Bahram Bur to Mundhir the Arab. Although these scenes are new, their iconography and style are not since they pull from traditional motifs. At about 38 x 26 cm, the page size was unusually large for the period, and several miniatures fill the whole page, with the frontispiece across two pages; in both these respects, the manuscript shows the direction later royal commissions would take.