This painting depicts the famous episode from the Shahnama of Firdausi. It is the turning point in the tale in which the hero, Rustam unseats Afrasiyab, the king of Turan, who is the enemy of Iran.The Shahnama (the Book of Kings) is a legendary epic tale on the history of Persia by the 10th century poet Firdausi. The Shahnama has 62 stories, 990 chapters, and contains 60,000 rhyming couplets. Firdausi started his composition of the Shahnama in the Samanid era in 977 CE and completed it around 1010 CE during the Ghaznavid era. The Shahnama tells the mythical and historical past of Iran from the creation of the world up until the Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century.
