The death of the hero Rustam and his horse Rakhsh, a
painting in gouache on paper
From Tabriz, north-west Iran
Around AD 1330-40
Page from a manuscript of the Shahnama
This painting belongs to a Shahnama manuscript that was
produced at the end of the IlKhanid dynasty of Persia in the 1330s.
This is the final episode in the saga of the great warrior Rustam
and his faithful red horse Rakhsh.
Rustam's jealous half-brother Shaghhad plotted with the king of
Kabul to kill him. They dug a deep pit, lining it with spears and
concealing it with bracken. They then invited Rustam to accompany
them on a hunting trip, and led him straight to the trap. Falling
into the pit, Rustam's horse Rakhsh was impaled on the spears and
killed, and Rustam was fatally injured. Realizing his
half-brother's treachery, the wounded Rustam begged Shaghhad to
string his bow for him, so that he could protect himself from wild
animals while he lay dying. Foolishly, Shaghhad obliged, and Rustam
shot him dead, pinning him to a tree with his final, well-aimed
arrow.
The painting is divided into three parts. On the left, the curve
of Rakhsh's body in the pit is echoed by the bending tree-trunk and
sagging body of Shaghhad on the right. In the middle, the dying
Rustam sits up straight to fire his last arrow, a vertical line at
the centre of the story.
S. Canby, Persian painting (London, The British Museum Press, 1993)
O. Grabar and S. Blair, Epic images and contemporary h (University of Chicago Press, 1980)