Evaluation of the Shahanshahname illustrated version in parliament library and identification of its illustrator

Shahanshahname is one of the Qajar-age illustrated manuscripts composed by Fath Ali Khan Saba in the first half of 13th century. This text is composed for explaining the Qajar king Fath Ali Shah’s conquests and the history of this dynasty. There are many version of the Shahanshahname in different libraries. In this research, the version 15234 of the Parliament library will be investigated. The mentioned version has 24 pictures without any signature or identification. The main goal of this research is to introduce the Saba’s Shahanshahname and to identify its illustrator. This research tries to answer this question that whether the illustration of the Shahanshahname version 15234 in parliament library was done by Mohammad Hassan Afshar? This research is analytic-descriptive and comparative in terms of the methodology. The data were collected through library sources and the images and pictures available in parliament library. The results obtained, imply that the illustrations were done by Mohammad Hassan Afshar, which is concluded based on the comparative analyses of designs and the composition of illustrations in the mentioned book and the Mosaja’e version 5998 in the Malek museum.