The manuscript is in good condition, but the binding is rather loosened and some folios are loose. Original leather binding, outside cover of black leather with a gold central cartouche and medallions; inside maroon, blue and gold borders of filigree, with flap.
One peculiarity of the illustrations is that Rustam does not wear his leopard hat and feather; another is that there is often no sky, but one or two clouds at the top of the picture. Altogether, it is a most interesting ms, with many unusual depictions of familiar subjects, often reduced to bare essentials, and often therefore quite removed from the text they're illustrating. Probably more than one hand was involved. The dimensions are very regular, with few departures from a rectangular format, but one or two larger-scale and more crowded scenes occur. Some of the work is rather crude. The ms. itself is beautifully produced, with fine gold margins and columns and neat headings.
The ms. starts on f. 1r with the left hand side of a double frontispiece, the right side of which is missing. The prose preface starts f. 1v, on a double page of gold interlinear illumination under a modest 'unvan. The preface ends with a full page miniature, f. 7r, and is incomplete? The poem starts with normative incipit, f. 7v, under another illuminated 'unvan, blue with gold, red and green touches. Text headings are in gold.
At end of Book One, there is a colophon dating the work to this point, to Sunday 1 Ordibehesht-mah Jalali, 855 AH (f. 258r). Book Two, starting with Luhrasp, is on f. 259v, under a nice sarlauh. (Ch.M.).
See K. Cig, "Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi'ndeki minyaturi u Kitaplarin katalogu", Sarkiyat Mecmuasi Istanbul Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi 3 (1959), pp. 69-70.
