Shahnameh

“Beautiful artwork” I said to myself when I first opened this wonderful book. Shahnameh is full of breathtaking Persian artwork on every page, and the illustrator Hamid Rahmanian combines samples of traditional art using photoshop to illustrate the story. For example, the image of Jamshid on his flying throne, held aloft by demons and winged women, shows how older imagery can be enhanced through modern technology. The same image of the king is used several times, each with a different background.

The story of Shahnameh is a traditional Persian folk tale. A man named Jamshid reigns as the king for 300 years, and becomes incredibly vain. He says “I have banished sickness, I have transformed the world, and nobody can challenge my preeminence.” His nobles rebel against him, no longer convinced by his conceit and hubris. It kind of reminds you of the Arab Spring, does it not? An aging dictator, once seen as great, now seen as a thief. No king can claim “divine right” forever, because you can’t fool everyone all the time.

I am not an aficionado of Persian mythology myself, so I might easily have missed this book in the store. The illustrations are beautiful, no doubt about that. But the book’s size and weight are somewhat prohibitive. I wonder if it might have done better as a four-part series.