Battle is a major theme of the Shahnama (Book of Kings), the Iranian national epic, which tells of the pre-Islamic kings, whose reigns are often punctuated by warfare, and the heroes who fight on their behalf. As this painting from a late fifteenth-century Shahnama manuscript demonstrates (also see M.75.24), illustrators rarely shied away from depicting the battlefield violence described throughout the poem. Here, the Iranian hero Bizhan triumphantly brandishes the head of his foe, a warrior named Human from the rival kingdom of Turan (Central Asia). Notably, the figures sport armor and weapons not of the epic’s ancient setting but of the period in which they were painted.

• Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.

• Denny, Walter B.  Turkish Treasures from the Collection of Edward Binney, 3rd.  Portland, OR:  Portland Art Museum, 1979.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art Members' Calendar 1992,  vol. 29-30, no. 12-1 (December, 1991-January, 1993).