The Sasanian King Yazdigird Killed by a Kick from a Horse

This folio is part of a dispersed Shahnama (Book of Kings) manuscript made for the Injuid vazir, or government minister, Qivam al-Din. The comparatively large figures, shallow picture space and horizontal format are typical of Islamic painting in all regions before the late fourteenth century. However, the simplified, highly stylized forms of the vegetation and the red background of this illustration are characteristic specifically of painting in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran in the time of the Injuid dynasty (c. 1325-53).