Shapur I

Historicism and Representation in Qajar Manuscript Production: Analyzing Ahmad Naqqash’s Persian TravelogueThis folio from the Metropolitan Museum of Art features an illustration by the nineteenth-century artist Ahmad Naqqash. It is preserved within the manuscript titled Persian Travelogue: A Diary of a Journey through the Region of Fars, dated 1838 CE (1254 AH) during the early Qajar period. The leaf showcases a text-image dynamic that captures a defining intellectual trend of the era: Qajar historicism. This movement actively revived Pre-Islamic Achaemenid and Sasanian visual idioms to legitimize contemporary imperial authority. Visual Analysis and Epigraphic ContextThe left page (verso) presents a profile portrait of an ancient Persian king or noble. It mimics the stone bas-reliefs found at Persepolis and Pasargadae. The figure wears a fluted calathos crown, which the accompanying text contextualizes through an early modern lens. The beard and hair are rendered via tightly coiled, repeating circular stylized lines. This treatment mirrors Achaemenid stonemasonry techniques. However, the artist renders these ancient forms on paper using precise ink washes and delicate contouring typical of nineteenth-century Persian draftsmen.The right page (recto) contains a single text column written in fluent, elegant Nasta‘liq script. The passage opens with a prominent heading. This title explicitly links the historical ruins of Fars to the mythical Kayanid dynasty of Firdausi’s Shahnameh. The subsequent Persian prose describes the architectural wonder of the crown ("Kolah-e Bozorg") and the heroic shelter ("Chatr-e Pahlavanit"). It directly credits the ancient visual reference to the legendary histories preserved by the poet Firdausi.The Politics of Qajar RevivalismThis composition bridges archaeological documentation and mythmaking. During the 1830s, European travelers and domestic intellectuals surveyed the ruins of Fars. Artists like Ahmad Naqqash accompanied these expeditions, translating three-dimensional monuments into codex-sized historical chronicles.Rather than executing a purely objective study, the artist filters ancient artifacts through an early modern Persian aesthetic. The inclusion of these stylized motifs served a specific ideological purpose for the Qajar elite. By embedding pre-Islamic monuments within traditional Persian manuscript layouts, the artwork projects a continuous lineage of sovereignty. It merges the mythological heroism of the Shahnameh with tangible Achaemenid monuments, crafting an idealized national narrative.If you are examining other folios from this travelogue, let me know if you would like to analyze how European perspective techniques alter these historical copies or investigate the epigraphic details of adjacent text passages.The Metropolitan Museum of ArtAhmad Naqqash - Persian Travelogue: A Diary of a Journey through the region of Fars - Qajar -