On f. 25v, sample page, there is a top margin of 55 mm, a side margin of 58 mm and a bottom margin of 50 mm. These measurements vary considerably throughout the ms.

The text has neat headings throughout, blue ink in gold floral boxes, taking up two lines of text. The whole ms. is very neatly written and is close to the standard edition of Mohl, in so far as it has been checked. The rubrics are generally placed close to their position in Mohl. The final heading is Sa`d b. Waqqas carrying off the taj and takht and darafsh.

The date 829 AH is found in the preface (f. 4v). The colophon at the end of vol. I, ff. 297v-298r, gives the date 15 Rajab 957, i.e. after the completion of the final part of the text; the calligrapher's name is Pir Husain al-Katib.

Note that the pictures are generally framed by ruled margins enclosing the text as well; therefore the pictures only extend into the margins in the sense that they sometimes extend beyond the text block.

Date in the colophon, which is rather damaged but still almost fully legible 1X rabi ‘ II 959/ ... (not in Robinson) 1552 and the name of the calligrapher Ahmad b. Hasan b. Ahmad.

There are two more final pages, designed like colophons, stuck together (ff. 297v and 298r).

In the first one (f. 297v) it is said: the first volume of the Shahnama was finished on the 15th day of Rajab 957. The next page seems to be a continuation of this:

“By the hand of the most humble slave Pir Husain katib”. And a prayer about the owner of the book and the scribe in Arabic and in Persian, followed by a poem praising Firdausi.

W. Ouseley bought this copy from Sir Elijah Impey on 21 May 1810

In the prose Introduction (ff.3v-14r ), there is a date 829 (in Persian) when the manuscript was commissioned (?) by the Prince (f. 4v).

Incipit: Iftitah...

Illuminations:

The beginning is in two round cartouches very heavily illuminated, mostly in thick ultramarine and gold with small elements in orange and black. In the upper part on both folios the blue has been washed away, leaving gold and other (sic) paints untacked. Satire on Mahmud (2 pages)

f. 8 – replacement? (the script is very stretched on both sides, especially on 8v, however, the hand seems to be the same).

f. 17v – very handsome 'unvan in the same style as the double page sarlauh. The blue in the very top of the 'unvan is similarly damaged (washed away).

Very unusual: f. 298v – under the 'unvan there is an illustration of Luhrasp enthroned – Robinson, however, is not confused by this. The 'unvan is in a very good condition, compared with the painting. Moreover, Luhrasp seems to be deliberately defaced (blinded!)

Robinson: two painters, one exhibits considerably superior gifts in both drawing and colour, he is responsible for ff. 71r, 206r, and the last seven starting from the one on f. 341v. The less talented painter had his own canons of depicting women: they have very small heads, being extremely tall, almost twice as tall as men, even if they are in the background while men are in the foreground, i.e. f. 29v – Faridun striking Zahhak on the head. Generally figures in the same painting can be of very different size with no relevance to perspective.

The Divs have very impressive genitals.

Instead of chalipa – very spread out handwriting, compared with the rest of the ms (f. 8v).

Put the protection sheets in between illustrated folios and the opposite folio.

Colophon very damaged [by restoration] but still possible to get information out of it. Sarlauh rather damaged by water. In the cartouches of the double page sarlauh there is the incipit of the prose introduction, incipit (f. 2v): iftitah-i...

The contour of some of the ornament in the sarlauh is damaged by probably aggressive white under the blue, which ate the paper through. The damages were very unprofessionally restored (f. 4r).

FA