{
"data": {
"id": 136321,
"accession_number": "1960.199",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Rustam meets the challenge of Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934\u20131020), c. 1590\u20131600. Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period (1501-1722). Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper; image: 25.4 x 15.7 cm (10 x 6 3/16 in.); overall: 31 x 20.1 cm (12 3/16 x 7 15/16 in.); text area: 21 x 13.5 cm (8 1/4 x 5 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of John C. Heege, 1960.199",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Rustam meets the challenge of Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934\u20131020)",
"creation_date": "c. 1590\u20131600",
"creation_date_earliest": 1590,
"creation_date_latest": 1600,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Iran, Shiraz, Safavid period (1501-1722)"
],
"technique": "Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Islamic Art",
"collection": "Islamic Art",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Image: 25.4 x 15.7 cm (10 x 6 3/16 in.); Overall: 31 x 20.1 cm (12 3/16 x 7 15/16 in.); Text area: 21 x 13.5 cm (8 1/4 x 5 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.254,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.157,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875
},
"overall": {
"height": 0.31,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.201,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375
},
"text area": {
"height": 0.21,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.135,
"width_inch": 5,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Script: Nasta'liq",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302039,
"title": "Year in Review (1961)",
"description": "Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-26, 1961).",
"opening_date": "1961-11-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 203111,
"title": "Art and Stories from Mughal India",
"description": "Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2016-07-31T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Ascheroff, Paris, France)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "John C. Heege [1904\u20131990], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131960",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1960\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The enemy ruler of China sits in a howdah on the back of a white elephant.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Iran was losing a battle against Turan and the armies of its assembled allies from India and China. The hero Rustam arrived to pull the Iranian army back from the brink of destruction, slaying the enemy warrior Ashkabus on foot while allowing his horse Rakhsh to rest after a long, hard journey. The vast number of armies involved in the battle is indicated by the many banners that extend beyond the illustration\u2019s top border. This painting was probably produced at Shiraz, one of Iran\u2019s major cultural centers, far to the south of the Safavid capital of Tabriz. Artists and works of art moved back and forth steadily between Shiraz and the Deccan in southwestern India during the 1500s and 1600s.
The section of the Shah-nama on the recto is famous for the clever conversational repartee between Rustam and his opponent Ashkabus. When Ashkabus remarked that in choosing not to ride a horse Rustam had signed his own death warrant, Rustam retorted, \u201cWould it be the case then that in your country . . . lions, tigers, and crocodiles [all] ride on horses to battle?\u201d Rustam then brought down the horse of Ashkabus with a single arrow; his next arrow pierced Ashkabus in the chest.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80030083"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1960.199-rustam-meets-the-cha"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\u201cAnnual Report for 1960.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 48, no. 6 (June 1961): 107\u2013147.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 124",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25142457"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 222",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n246"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 222",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n246"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 279",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n299"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1960.199",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
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"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1960.199/1960.199_web.jpg",
"width": "584",
"height": "900",
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"filename": "1960.199_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1960.199/1960.199_print.jpg",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of John C. Heege",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 136321,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1960-11-12T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1590,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1590\u20131600",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Story of Kamus Kashani (Recto); Rustam Meets the Challenge of Ashkabus (Verso)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:57:20.347000"
}
}