This set contains five paintings from the famous Shahnama made for the Safavid Shah Isma'il II (reg. 1576-7). They were not identified as such in the Chester Beatty catalogue, although correctly dated to the 1570s, see Arberry et al., III, p. 32.
Three of these pictures were exhibited in the V & A, see Robinson, Persian miniature painting from collections in the British Isles, 1967, p. 62, with references to earlier publications.
A reconstruction of the scattered folios of the ms was provided by B.W. Robinson, "Isma'il II's copy of the Shahnama", in 1976; since then, some additional folios have recently come to light (at Sam Fogg's, London, q.v.).
Most of the paintings are attributed to various among the foremost artists of the Safavid court; cf. Welch, Artists for the Shah, 1976.
