Material Objects

 This is a page from a different Shahnameh that depicts three figures crossing a river on horseback, with a blooming tree in the background.  While not the focus of the image, the tree is beautifully illustrated in bright colours, bearing multiple kinds of flowers (normal trees only have one kind of flower).  The choice to add multiple flowers to the tree was certainly intentional, as no trees bear different varieties of flowers, unless branches are grafted on by humans.  The special nature of this tree potentially alludes to the fact that this story is taking place in a more mystical world than the one we usually observe, similar to how the speaking tree exists on the fringes of the human world in the desert city.

Many kings commissioned a Shahnameh during their reign, and it was considered a guidebook of sorts for kings to learn from.  This is a page from a copy of a Shahnameh (not the Shahnameh of shah tahmasp) which depicts Sekandar, alone on a mountain.  In the story he encounters a talking bird which transports him to the mountain, where an angel appears and warns him of his impending death. 

The illustration only takes up a part of the page, and is framed by the arabic text.  The Sky in the illustration is red, and the hills in the background are brightly coloured and boldly patterned, creating a sense that the scene does not take place in our “normal” human world, but rather in the “fantastic” world.  

This is a page from a Persian book of poetry.  The story depicted in the drawing shows the moon (depicted on the right-hand side of the page) meeting three constellations: the twins, gemini, the crab, cancer, and the lion, leo.   Each of the three constellations is depicted in its own panel, separated from the others by the arabic text.  While the constellations are non-human entities, the first two have serene human-like faces.  The lion does not have a human face, but has a similarly sentient and meek expression.

The drawing portrays non-human monsters, who are non meant to be frightening dangers, but rather a more neutral sort of spiritual entity, like the talking tree.  In this depiction, monsters are shown to be similar to humans; they have emotions, and can be reasoned with unlike creatures in other medieval stories.  Monsters in this case, exist on the same level as humans.