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Bal'ami's "History of Tabari": Bahram Gur Kills Lions and Seizes the Crown
Bal'ami's "History of Tabari": Bahram Gur Kills Lions and Seizes the Crown

Bal'ami's "History of Tabari": Bahram Gur Kills Lions and Seizes the Crown

Akbar
about 1570–1590
Object PlaceNorthern India
Medium/TechniqueInk, watercolor, gold and silver on paper
DimensionsHeight x width: 37.3 × 22.2 cm (14 11/16 × 8 3/4 in.)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912 and by contribution
Accession number14.648
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts
Collections
Description
This page probably once belonged to a manuscript of a Persian translation of the "Ta'rikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk" (History of Prophets and Kings) composed in Arabic by the celebrated historian al-Tabari (d. 310/923). The translation was produced in 963 AD by the writer Bal'ami.
ProvenanceBy 1912, Victor Goloubew (b. 1879 - d. 1945), Paris [see note 1]; 1914, sold by Goloubew through M. Meyer-Riefstahl to the MFA for $76,999.81 (total price for 14.532-700). (Accession Date: June 4, 1914)

NOTES:
[1] Victor Goloubew was born in Russia but lived in Paris by the time of this acquisition. He formed this collection of Persian and Indian miniature paintings and exhibited it at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 1912 to 1914 (Paull, Florence Virginia. "The Goloubew Collection of Persian and Indian Paintings." Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. Vol. XIII. No. 74. (February 1915) 1-16).