Dating from the early fourteenth century, the so-called Great Mongol Shahnama is one of the grandest Persian illustrated manuscripts. For the first time, an exhibition that has been years in the making is entirely devoted to this work, thought to be the first imperial copy of Firdawsi’s literary monument.

Curator Simon Rettig will give an overview of the museum's upcoming exhibition An Epic of Kings, which includes twenty-five folios of this now dismantled manuscript. Rettig will also introduce the intricate text-image relationship in this copy of Iran’s national epic, probably created for the Mongol Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa‘id around 1330.

This talk is part of the online lunchtime series Sneak Peek: New Research from the National Museum of Asian Art, where staff members present brief, personal perspectives and ongoing research, followed by discussion. This year, the series focuses on the theme of word and image—including calligraphy, seals, inscriptions, manuals, narratives, and poetry—in the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art.

Dr. Simon Rettig is the associate curator for the arts of the Islamic World at NMAA. Since he joined the museum in 2012, Rettig has curated several exhibitions, including Nasta‘liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy (2014), The Prince and the Shah: Royal Portraits from Qajar Iran (2018), and the upcoming An Epic of Kings: The Great Mongol Shahnama (September 21, 2024–January 12, 2025). His current projects include a major exhibition on the history of Persian painting and a monograph on the Freer Gallery of Art Collection's celebrated manuscript of Nizami’s Khusraw u Shirin from the Jalayirid period.