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I have been recently looking for Shahnama manuscripts and illustrations for a personal project. The Shahnama (Book of Kings) is an enormous poetic opus written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD and is the national epic of the Persian-speaking world. It tells the the mythical and historical past of Iran from the creation of the world up until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.

It is filled with a colorful cast of kings, heroes, and villains; a great source of inspiration for comic books. Over the centuries, artists have made great illustrations from these stories.

The Shahnama project (now a few years old, and I'm not sure if it's still active), tries to bring together all the wonderful illustrations (many of them centuries old) of the Shahnama in an easy to access format.

It really is a treasure box for anyone interested in the visualizing the Shahnama stories. Check it out.