Battle Between Iranians and Turanians
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Watercolor |
| Current Location: | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA. 52.20.9a |
| Location History: | Victor Goloubew, Paris (in 1929); Dikran G. Kelekian (American, born Turkey), New York (by 1933–d. 1951; his estate, New York, 1951–52;sold to MMA) |
At first glance, the composition is a dizzying vortex of violence—swords clashing, horses trampling, and warriors dying. However, when you look closer, the painting completely strips war of its real-world horror. By flattening the perspective and treating every element with meticulous, jewel-like precision, the artist transforms a brutal slaughter into an elegant, rhythmic ballet. it can also be interpreted as a profound meditation on the inescapable nature of human fate (ruzgar) and the subversion of violence through cosmic order. The blood and terror are secondary to the visual harmony. This suggests a philosophical perspective rooted deeply in the Shahnama itself: that earthly conflicts, no matter how chaotic they feel to those trapped within them, are merely threads in a larger, pre-ordained cosmic tapestry. The placement of the text blocks at the bottom of the page acts as a literal and metaphorical foundation. While the battle rages and swirls unpredictably across the upper registers of the page, the geometric, stable text blocks remain unyielding. This layout can be interpreted as the triumph of poetic immortality over transient physical struggle. The warriors will die, empires will fall, and the battle lines will blur, but their actions have already been frozen in time and destiny by the word of the poet. The physical movement of the painting flows downward into the text, implying that all human action ultimately serves to fulfill written destiny.