Madrid ms. II. 3218: rubrics and folio no. 2. M. 413 Kay Khosrow counsels Tus son of Nowzar (f. 229v)

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1 Table 6 Rubrics in Madrid ms. II Rubric no. and nearest Mohl line no. Madrid ms. II. 3218: rubrics and folio no. 1. M. 396 Tus comes to the Shah (f. 229v) 2. M. 413 Kay Khosrow counsels Tus son of Nowzar (f. 229v) 3. M. 435 Tus takes the Jaram road (f. 230r) 4. M. - News of Tus is brought to Forud son of Siyavosh (f. 230r) 5. M. 505 Forud comes to view the army of Iran (f. 230v) 6. M. 520 Tokhvar points out Tus to Forud (f. 231r) 7. M. 548 Tus sends a hero to spy out those two people (f. 231r) 8. M. 558 Bahram son of Gudarz goes to Forud and Tokhvar (f. 231r) 9. M. 611 Bahram and Forud deliberate together and Forud s message to Tus (f. 232r) 10. M. 636 Bahram passes Forud s message to Tus son of Nowzar and his reply (f. 232v) 11. M. 646 Tus s violence towards Bahram (f. 232v) 12. M. 662 Forud and Tokhvar come together and fight with 1 Tus son of Nowzar (f. 232v) 13. M. 681 Zarasp goes to fight Forud and is killed (f. 233r) 14. M. 699 Tus comes to fight Forud to avenge his son (f. 233r) 15. M. 747 Giv goes to fight Forud and Forud shoots an arrow at Giv s horse (f. 234r) M. 769 Telling how the heroes go to Giv son of Gudarz and enquire after Giv (f. 234r) 17. M. 811 Bizhan goes to fight Forud (f. 234v) 18. M. 822 Bizhan and Forud fight on foot together and Forud flees (f. 235r) 19. M. 844 Jarira comes to Forud (f. 235r) 20. M. 861 Rohham, who is called Bokht-Nasr, lops 2 Forud s arm (f. 235v) 21. M. 899 The death of Forud son of Siyavosh (f. 235v) 22. M. 909 Forud s mother kills herself (above a painting of the same) (f. 236r) 23. M. 945 The construction of a dakhma (tomb tower) for Forud (f. 236v) Notes: 1 - Presumably here, the word Riv or Rivniz (son-in-law of Tus) has dropped out. 2 - The word used is andâkhtan, to throw down.

2 Table 4 comparing the placement of the 12 sub-headings in each of four mss. A hyphen indicates that the rubric is placed at a verse not found in Mohl s text. C822 (1440) PNS 90 (1602) PNS 65 (1630) Salar Jung 575 (17 th c) Table 5 Three manuscripts with five sub-headings Paris s.p (c. 1490) Salar Jung 576 (1570) PNS 64 (17 th c.) Forud approaches the Iranians [M. 455] Bahram son of Gudarz approaches Forud [M. 560] Tus son of Nowzar leads the army to the land of Turan [M. 393] The fight of Forud and the sonin-law of Tus [M. 660] The killing of Rabud (sic. = Riv) the son-in-law of Tus at the hands of Forud [M. 666] The Iranians battle with Forud son of Siyavosh [M. 437] The fight of Forud and Zarasp [M. c. 688] The killing of Zarasp at the hands of Forud [M.?] Left blank (above a picture of the fight with Zarasp outside Forud s castle) [M. 692] The fight of Forud and Giv son of Gudarz [M. 748] The battle of Forud with the Givs (Givan, sic.) [M.?] The killing of Forud at the hands of Bizhan son of Giv [M. 859] The killing of Forud son of Siyavosh [M. 860] The battle of the Iranians with Forud and the killing of Forud [M.?] Left blank (above a picture of Rohham cutting Forud s arm from behind) [M. 886]

3 Ms. Mohl line Rubric 2 M. 396 آغاز داستاد 6.M 397 لشکر کشیدن بجنگ افراسیاب تورانی 1, 5 M. 398 آغاز داستان 4, 5.M 455 آمدن فرود و دیدن ایرانیان 1, 6.M 458 آگاه شدن فرامرز در کار سپاه و مشورت کردن با مادر خویش 3 (459).M آمدن لشکر ایرانیان بطالب آگاه شدن فرود سیاوش 6 خبر یافتن فرود از آمدن ایرانیان 1, 4.M 508 دیدن دیدبان لشکر دژرا لشکر ایرانیان 2.M 510 رفتن تخوار وفرود در باالی کوه ودیدن آن سپاه و انبوه 4.M 557 پرسیدن فرود سیاوش ایرانیانرا از تخوار پرسیدن فرود نشانهای ایرانیان از تخار.M M 568 رفتن بهرام بنزد فرود وسوال کردن و جواب دادن 2.M 571 رفتن بهرام گودرز بنزدیک فرود سیاوش 4 آمدن بهرام بنزدیک فرود سیاوش 6.M 636 آمدن بهرام از تیغ کوه و خبر دادن از حال فرود و کشته شدن قلون 3.M 647 اندر داستان خشم گرفتن طوس بر لشکر فرماید 5.M 659 رزم فرود با ریونیز داماد طوس 6.M 661 کشته شدن ریو داماد طوس از دست فرود سیاوش 2.M 664 کشته شدن ریونیز بر دست فرود 1.M 675 کشته شدن ریونیز داماد طوس 3, 4.M 679 آمدن زراسپ بنزد فرود وکشته شدن او بر دست فرود 2, 5.M 683 رزم فرود با زراسپ 1.M 693 کشته شدن زرسب طوس بر دست فرود سیاوش 2.M 697 کشته شدن زرسب طوس بر دست فرود 3.M 698 رفتن طوس برزم فرود 6.M 701 کشته شدن زرسب پسر طوس از دست فرود سیاوش 5.M 702 رزم فرود با طوس نوذر 4 رفتن گیو وکشته شدن اسپ او بدست فرود 3, 5.M 738 رزم فرود با گیو گودرز 2.M 751 رزم فرود سیاوش یا گیو گودرز وباز گشتن گیو 1.M 771 کشته شدن زرسب طوس بر دست فرود )sic( 3.M 780 رفتن بیژن پسر گیو نزد فرود و تیر زدن فرود مر اسپ اورا 4.M 807 رزم فرود یا بیژن گیو 5.M 809 رزم فرود سیاوش یا بیژن گیو و تباه شدن فرود 2.M 812 اندر داستان رزم کردن بیژن با فرود 6.M 823 کشته شدن فرود سیاوش بردست بیژن گیو 2.M 826 گفتار اندر جنگ بیژن با فرود سیاوش 1.M 827 رزم فرود با ایرانیان 5.M 843 گفتار در خواب دیدن دختر پیران مادر فرودرا رزم کردن بیژن با فرود سیاوش و کشته شدن فرود.M M 862 زخم زدن رهام فرودرا و رفتن او بدژ ومردن او 4 کشته شدن فرود سیاوش 1.M 891 کشته شدن فرود بر دست ایرانیان 5.M 911 اندر داستان زاری کردن پهلوانان ایران ببالین فرود 3.M 916 نوحه کردن بهرام بر شاهزاده فرود و خاک بر سرکردن زنگه در آن مصیبت 6.M 922 اندر داستان زاری کردن پهلوانان ایران ببالین فرود 238

4 Table 2 The number of sub-headings in the Story of Forud (sample size: 45) No. of rubrics manuscript 1 rubric 1 Tehran Isl. Encyc. 2 rubrics 2 St Petersburg Dorn 329, PNS rubrics 3 St Petersburg Dorn 331; Kuwait Sabah 260; Doha rubrics 2 Ox. All Souls 288; St Petersburg PNS 64 5 rubrics 2 Paris Sp 1280; Hyderabad rubrics 7 Ox. Elliott 325, Dep.b.5; Krakow, Czart. 1800; St Petersburg PNS 381; St Joseph Beirut; Bombay PoW ; Hyderabad rubrics 3 BL Add 21,103; Cama HP ms 9; Hyderabad rubrics 5 Florence 1217; CUL Add. 835; Paris Sp 2113; Hyderabad 580; Paris Sp rubrics 5 St Petersburg, C 1654, Dorn 333, PNS 13; NYPL Spencer Pers 13; Ox. Add rubrics 3 CUL Browne V69*; NYPL Spencer Pers 62; Ox. Ouseley rubrics 1 CUL Or rubrics 6 St Petersburg, C 822, PNS 90, PNS 65; Bombay PoW , Cama R-415a, Hyderabad 575, rubrics 1 St Petersburg PNS rubrics 1 Madrid, II rubrics 2 St Petersburg Dorn 334; Ox. Ouseley 344 Table 3 comparing the placement and wording of rubrics in five mss each containing nine headings 1 = Bodleian Library, Oxford, ms. Ouseley Add 176 (1425) 2 = Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, St Petersburg, ms. C 1654 (1445) 3 = National Library of Russia, St Petersburg, ms. Dorn 333 (1651) 4 = New York Public Library, Spencer Pers 13 (1815) 5 = National Library of Russia, ms. PNS 13 (1855)

5 Table 1 Shahnameh manuscripts with the story of Forud: wording and placement of the main heading Ms. Mohl line Rubric آغاز داستاد M لشکر کشیدن بجنگ افراسیاب تورانی.M آغاز داستان M ,5 آمدن فرود و دیدن ایرانیان آگاه شدن فرامرز در کار سپاه و مشورت کردن با مادر خویش آمدن لشکر ایرانیان بطالب آگاه شدن فرود سیاوش خبر یافتن فرود از آمدن ایرانیان 4, 5 M ,6 M. 458 دیدن دیدبان لشکر دژرا لشکر ایرانیان 6 رفتن تخوار وفرود در باالی کوه ودیدن آن سپاه و انبوه پرسیدن فرود سیاوش ایرانیانرا از تخوار 1, 4 M. 508 پرسیدن فرود نشانهای ایرانیان از تخار.M رفتن بهرام بنزد فرود وسوال کردن و جواب دادن.M رفتن بهرام گودرز بنزدیک فرود سیاوش.M آمدن بهرام بنزدیک فرود سیاوش.M آمدن بهرام از تیغ کوه و خبر دادن از حال فرود و کشته شدن قلون 4 اندر داستان خشم گرفتن طوس بر لشکر فرماید.M رزم فرود با ریونیز داماد طوس.M کشته شدن ریو داماد طوس از دست فرود سیاوش.M کشته شدن ریونیز بر دست فرود.M کشته شدن ریونیز داماد طوس.M آمدن زراسپ بنزد فرود وکشته شدن او بر دست فرود.M رزم فرود با زراسپ کشته شدن زرسب طوس بر دست فرود سیاوش 2, 5 M. 683 کشته شدن زرسب طوس بر دست فرود.M M 697 رفتن طوس برزم فرود 6.M 701 کشته شدن زرسب پسر طوس از دست فرود سیاوش 5.M 702 رزم فرود با طوس نوذر 4 رفتن گیو وکشته شدن اسپ او بدست فرود رزم فرود با گیو گودرز.M رزم فرود سیاوش یا گیو گودرز وباز گشتن گیو.M M 771 کشته شدن زرسب طوس بر دست فرود )sic( 4.M 807 رفتن بیژن پسر گیو نزد فرود و تیر زدن فرود مر اسپ اورا 5.M 809 رزم فرود یا بیژن گیو 2.M 812 رزم فرود سیاوش یا بیژن گیو و تباه شدن فرود 6.M 823 اندر داستان رزم کردن بیژن با فرود 2.M 826 کشته شدن فرود سیاوش بردست بیژن گیو 1.M 827 گفتار اندر جنگ بیژن با فرود سیاوش 5.M 843 رزم فرود با ایرانیان 4.M 844 گفتار در خواب دیدن دختر پیران مادر فرودرا 6.M 862 رزم کردن بیژن با فرود سیاوش و کشته شدن فرود 4 زخم زدن رهام فرودرا و رفتن او بدژ ومردن او 1.M 891 کشته شدن فرود سیاوش 5.M 911 کشته شدن فرود بر دست ایرانیان 6.M 922 اندر داستان زاری کردن پهلوانان ایران ببالین فرود

6 difference between the five or six available examples, each employing a different wording and in all but one case the rubric falling in a different position, even though the pictures themselves are again closely placed near the same break-line (M ); there is one exception that is very anomalous in terms both of the caption and the relation between the text and the image at this point. 23 This diversity can partly be explained by the fact that whereas the combat against Zarasp is rather short and a clearly self-contained moment (15 verses in M., 19 verses in KM), Forud s fight with Bizhan and Rohham leads to his death and is part of a more protracted passage that can broadly be defined as the death of Forud, and the rubrics are therefore more liable to float more widely across the text. In conclusion, the rather neglected study of the rubrics in Shahnameh manuscripts can open up some fruitful lines of investigation about the creation and reading of the text over time, and not least provide a way of identifying groups of manuscripts with very similar features Tehran, Reza Abbasi Museum, ms , p. 342, at M Cf. the other five: Rampur P M. 493, p. 282 (at M. 864); Dublin, Chester Beatty, Per. 157, f. 155r (at M. 864); London, BL, Add. 18,188, f. 128v (at M. 852), Reza Abbasi, ms. 70, 67-1, p. 224 (at M. 871) and Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Perzsa Fl. 3, f. 137v (at M. 860).

7 these headings provide a very full summary of the plot while inevitably lacking the more interior dimensions of the story. 17 Although they provide a detailed overview, it is interesting to ponder whether they are inserted purely to outline the narrative or what other considerations might have been in play. Many folios have two or even three rubrics on the page (ff. 231r, 232v), yet others have none (ff. 231v, 233v), suggesting that the headings are inserted where they are needed for the story, rather than to provide a regular, decorative parcelling up of the text, to be easy on the eye and to break up the wall of words. That is, the first line of enquiry is to see how the rubrics tell the story. The second line would then be to examine the precise placement of the rubrics, not only from the point of view of their correlation with the story (i.e., as if a break-line ), but also with respect to the design on the page, or the open spread. This topic deserves far more attention than it can be given here; 18 but a preliminary observation may be that initially, the function of the rubric was purely practical (see e.g. the placement of the rubric in the early British Library ms. of 1276, fol. 74r), but at a later point, still to be determined, it came also to be conceived as a decorative element. One way of investigating the evidence for this is to examine the relevance of the placement of rubrics according to the text (i.e. to compare functional with decorative considerations). As for the emphasis on the death of Zarasp noted before, this brings us to a most important question: it would be useful to determine which are the most popular titles, regardless of their precise wording, and to compare these also with the most popular scenes, that is the ones most often chosen for depiction, on the basis that the artists were (also) giving a reading of the story in their illustrations, or focusing on the key moment(s). Both the headings and obviously to a lesser extent the pictures are in different ways highlighting the significant scenes in the narrative and give it its structure. So far 19 illustrated scenes up to and including the Iranians mourning for Forud have been identified. 19 Of these, the most commonly chosen are Forud killing Zarasp (31) and Bizhan and Rohham ambushing Forud (41), leading to his death. There are many things that could be said about the illustration of these scenes, but that is not our point here. Focusing on some examples in which the paintings are preceded by a rubric on the same page, we see for the death of Zarasp first, that the rubrics are placed quite consistently (though at a verse that is not found in Mohl s edition) as indeed are the paintings (ranging between M , that is at the end of the scene), and similarly placed with respect to the rubrics in a manuscript that is not illustrated (BL. ms. of 1276, fol. 76r); and secondly, that the two Indian mss of 1602 and 1605 respectively use exactly the same wording and position for the title, 20 whereas the earlier ms. from Tabriz is different. 21 A manuscript in the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute in Mumbai, with a more standard text (but a less standard illustration!), places the rubric at M. 683, nearer the normative start of this section. 22 As for Rohham s fatal blow on Forud s arm, there is a much greater 17 - See also Charles Melville, The story of Forud in the Shâhnâmeh and elsewhere and the apportionment of blame, in press, for a study of other aspects of this episode I have made a preliminary study of this in connection with the story of Davazdah Rukh, see my Serial killers: the misen-page of Firdausi s Davazdah Rukh, Persica 23 ( ), pp There is some element of this also in series of encounters between Forud and Rivniz, Zarasp, Tus, Giv, and Bizhan See the Cambridge Shahnama Project website, New York MET, , f. 142v, and Boston MFA, , f. 173v London BL, Add. 15,531, f. 143v Cama Oriental Institute, ms. BBP 86, f. 446v. 242

8 On the other hand, the similarity between some copies does allow the possibility of identifying groups of texts on the basis of the rubrics used, and perhaps especially mss close in date or from the same place, where the chances of copying from similar exemplars are greater. These preliminary findings, therefore, might encourage us to look at different manuscripts of a similar date for comparable contents (text and rubrics), or to date unknown mss by their relationship to others with similar schemes of headings You might now ask, so what? Part of the answer lies in a question: given that there is no definitive text of the Shahnameh, each copy is a unique artefact; in that case, why are they different and what is the purpose of the text rubrics, their choice and contents as revealed in different mss? Is it to give the reader some signposts to the outline of the narrative, to serve as a sort of summary reading of the text, or rather to serve a largely decorative purpose, breaking the text and the page into more or less random sections? One might also consider this matter from the point of view of European literature: how is the text broken up, but also how is this marked? Chapters can be given titles or numbers or left blank, or contain a sort of detailed résumé as in a Victorian novel. 15 To pursue these questions, we have to go beyond reviewing the overall statistics, to see how the rubrics function in each case. I cannot go into this sort of detail here, but we might point ahead to certain lines of investigation, first of which is to investigate and compare the breakdown of the story in individual manuscripts. I will briefly offer a couple of examples, for both a minimal and a maximal treatment. First, a minimal case (five sub-headings) (Table 5). All three sets of headings give a reasonable idea of the contents of the story, and after a variation in the opening title, concentrate exclusively in the sequence of combats that culminate in Forud s death, though the placement of these headings is not very consistent. 16 With PNS 64 we encounter the question of another use of rubrics, in other words as captions for illustrations (see also below). It is unfortunate that in this case, the headings are empty, although it is possible that they were initially designed as spaces to be used by the artist rather than for a rubric, and the artist rather than the rubricwriter left them blank. In that case, we should take the preceding rubric as the caption for the picture also (which certainly makes sense in the latter case). It is noticeable also that the only incident that is covered specifically in all three copies is the killing of Zarasp, son of Tus, as an important element of the narrative, either through the choice of rubric or by means of an illustration. Let us also list the rubrics in a maximum copy, Madrid ms. II. 3218, which has nearly the most so far identified (Table 6). As seen in Table 2, two other mss. have one additional heading (Dorn 334 [1584] and Ouseley 344 [1601]). The titles and their placement here is very similar to both these mss, suggesting a close relationship between them. There is no doubt that 14 - As All Souls 288 is a truncated Shahnama, for instance, ending with Alexander/Eskandar, it would be interesting to compare it with others in the same group, as identified by Karin Ruhrdanz, About a group of truncated Shahnamas: A case study in the commercial production of illustrated manuscripts in the second part of the sixteenth century, Muqarnas 14 (1997), pp See e.g. Anne Zali, ed. L aventure des écritures. La page, Paris, The Hyderabad ms. contains several lines not found in Mohl s edition, and needs fuller inspection.

9 one in seven or so). As the story (up to the death of Forud) is only 567 verses in Mohl (and 523 in KM), and is usually somewhere between 8 and 13 pages long, this means that either there is effectively no use of headings to break up the text, or that there can be as many as two rubrics per page, but that there is usually at least one. We can see a similar range in the much longer episode of the story of Bizhan and Manizha, but some clustering around a mean of rubrics; I have dealt elsewhere in a preliminary way with the question of the headings in this story and further work is in preparation. 12 No doubt we would encounter the same phenomenon wherever we looked in the text, as it is clear that the story of Forud is not an exception; it does, however, provide a conveniently short case for examination. Let us look then at a specific example, taking those five mss with nine headings (see Table 3). Rubrics for which no line is entered are associated with lines not found in Mohl; these have been put in approximately their correct place in the sequence. This Table shows several things: mainly that out of five mss with the same number of headings, not only are there very few (five) cases when the rubrics are placed at the same point in the text, but also there is only a single instance when the rubric uses the same wording (right at the start of the story). It is also the case that the headings are often out of order and that the rubrics for a particular scene are placed at some distance from it, e.g. in ms. 6 (the 19 th c. copy in St Petersburg). This may all be partly a function of an example of texts with a relatively small number of rubrics, in which a single heading may cover quite a long passage of the story. At any rate, it seems there is not the same consistency found in the placement of the rubrics as there is in the placement of the pictures (a topic touched on below). Taking another example, to see if this is an exceptional or isolated case, from four of the mss that have 12 rubrics (Table 4), 13 we reach two main conclusions: first, that the same phenomenon occurs C 822 (ms. of 1440 in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, St Petersburg) bears little resemblance in its placement (or wording) of the 12 rubrics it contains, to the other three; but secondly, PNS 90 (dated 1602) and PNS 65 (1630), both in the National Library of Russia, are almost identical in the placement of their rubrics (and in the wording, not shown here). The undated 17 th -century manuscript in Hyderabad is also very similar, essentially having one heading less at the start but one extra at the end. The one placement of the rubric they all share is at M , concerning the combat between Forud and either Zarasp or Tus. These Tables suggest two opposing possibilities. First, it seems the scribes were not necessarily copying the rubrics along with the text in any one transmission, although we know very little about this whether a straight copy was made from one exemplar, or a version was collated from several copies. The fact that the rubrics were put in later and perhaps by a different scribe, following the wording allocated to the task in the margins, is clearly seen when the margins are left incompletely trimmed, as is often the case. Who decided the placement of the boxes left for the headings, which had to be predetermined and spaces left ready, just as in the case of the spaces left for the paintings? And was the decision based on a reading of the text, or mainly for considerations of the design and layout of the page? 12 - See Charles Melville, Text and image in the story of Bizhan and Manizha: I, in Melville, ed. Shahnama Studies I, Pembroke Papers 5 (2006), pp , and part II in preparation I have identified two others, in Bombay (Mumbai), but without the time to record the details. 244

10 starting with the Florence ms.) do contain a chapter heading somewhere near the normative position established in the edited texts (M. 387), there is a second, strong concentration around M , that is, at the first subheading, On Tus going to Turkestan (in Mohl; KM has The story begins ), starting When the sun rose to its full height and took its seat on the throne, i.e. commencing with the narrative proper and relegating Ferdowsi s preamble of the moral of the story to a transitional place at the end of the previous scene. In addition to the mss listed, there are a few occasions when the start of the story is not clear, either because the lines are not in Mohl s text, 10 or because the transition to this episode is not actually marked: for example, in the Bodleian ms. Ouseley 369 (dated 1552), the previous heading is at M. 376, Kay Khosrow arranges a majles for Rostam. In the All Souls ms. 288 (dated 1580), also in Oxford, the previous heading, The Iranian army goes to Turan to make war on Afrasiyab comes at M. 295, where Kay Khosrow reviews the army at the start of his reign. In both copies, the first rubric for the story of Forud comes much, رفتن طوس با ایرانیان بتوران بکین خواستن سیاوش later: in All Souls 288, under the title it comes at M In Ouseley 369, under the title آغاز داستان, it comes at M In the Madrid ms. II (dated 1496), the beginning is also not signalled. آمدن طوس بنزد شاه and the first text rubric is also placed at M. 396, under the title 245 The start of the story If the initial episode heading is relatively consistent in meaning (Tus leading the army to Turan to fight Afrasiyab), the first subheading is very often آغاز داستان, which, as noted above, is found as the opening title in Ouseley 369 (and other copies). 11 The interesting point here is that this first sub-heading is found in several manuscripts (around 12 at present) and that in each case, the rubric is placed around lines M , i.e. with the line that starts the action proper: چو خورشید بنمود باالی خویش نشست از بر تخت ]تند[ بر جای خویش What we learn from this, then, is that the manuscript scribes were reasonably consistent in their understanding that the narrative of Forud starts at this point, which is either where a heading for the whole episode is often placed, or the first sub-heading. There is far less unanimity over the actual beginning of the episode, which suggests that the passage of moralising or explanation about the significance of the story is frequently left as a sort of transitional text merging with the end of the previous episode, especially in the later copies. Chapter headings So far, we have been considering how the start of the story of Forud is marked. The lack of consistency in the wording and placing of the text headings is equally obvious within the body of each episode or story itself and here we notice an extraordinary variety in the number, and the placement, of sub-headings throughout the text. Table 2 gives a breakdown of the numbers of rubrics found in the different manuscripts studied so far, from which it will be seen that there is a great range, from only 1 to 24, with the most common figures being 6, 8-9, and 12 (occurring at a rate of every 10 - E.g. St Petersburg, National Library of Russia, PNS 65. Occasionally, also, I have failed so far to note the break-line and in these and other cases need to refer again to the mss. Some of these copies are therefore excluded from Table E.g. PNS 65. See also KM, III, p. 27, and variants.

11 spaces in the text. When I started thinking about this topic and collecting examples, chiefly from the story of Bizhan and Manizha, the first signs were that there was a sort of anarchy in the matter of these headings. On further investigation, made easier thanks to the facsimile editions prepared by Iraj Afshar and his colleagues, mentioned earlier, it transpired that there was some consistency in the earliest surviving manuscripts, so that the nature of the question or rather, its focus changes slightly: if the correct headings were more or less established in the early manuscript tradition, why then is there such a departure from these later? Either way, the point of the research is to focus on an element of the creation of literary manuscripts and even of the arts of the book, which have not received sufficient attention. 6 The question could also be related to the reception and reading of the text as it developed over the centuries. The story of Forud, son of Siyavosh, provides a good example of this situation. In the edition of Jules Mohl the best of the early texts the story of Forud has its own heading ( Beginning of the story of Forud son of Siyavosh ), 7 but it is a sub-heading quite early in the reign of Kay Khosrow, following the latter s accession speeches and intentions, his distribution of wealth to the heroes, the despatch of Rostam to India and a review of the army. However, in the edition of Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, the definitive modern text, Forud has a new episode to himself, starting at Mohl verse 387 (i.e. M. 387 = KM. 1), 8 that is, both start at the same point: جهانجوی چون شد سرافراز و گرد سپهرا بدشمن نباید سپرد The title of the episode of Forud Although the title of the episode is clear enough, there are considerable variations in the manuscript copies, of which I have investigated about 45, more or less at random, see Table 1. 9 Various points arise immediately from these data, which show first, that there is quite a spread of lines where the chapter heading comes in the text, and also a wide range of wording, although they are mainly similar in their sense. It is noticeable that the Dastan-e Forud-e Siyavosh, which one might call the correct title, only occurs eight or nine times among the small sample surveyed and furthermore, these headings are all placed in the text before the story actually begins. We can see, indeed, that when the title Dastan-e Forud-e Siyavosh is employed, it is almost always (the exception is the 15 th -century ms. in the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia Centre) in around the same place, M , at what then should perhaps be regarded as the real start of the story, urging Tus to sound the trumpets and beat the drums, in preparation for Kay Khosrow s efforts to avenge his father. But this cannot be the correct starting point, coming as it does in the middle of a speech. The heading has therefore been placed, presumably deliberately, at what should thus be seen as the turning point at which the Shah initiates the quest for revenge. Thirdly, while several mss (and especially the earliest so far investigated, 6 - For an exception, see Marianna Shreve Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza s Haft Awrang, New Haven & London, 1997, pp , which highlights their decorative aspect. 7 - Jules Mohl, ed. Le livre des rois, vol. II, Paris, 1842, p Separate Persian text, repr. with intro. by Jahangir Afkari, Tehran, 1345/1966 [hereafter M.], vol. II, p Separate French trans., vol. II, Paris, 1876, p Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, ed. Abu l-qasem Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, vol. III, Costa Mesa & New York, 1993 [hereafter KM.], pp See KM, III, p. 27 n. 1, for other variations in the title. 246

12 247 Charles Melville University of Cambridge Among the many great services that Iraj Afshar performed in the different fields of Persian history and culture over a lifetime of work, an important place must be given to the study of manuscripts and codicology. Included in this is the publication of facsimile editions of important texts, 1 not least the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi: 2 most recently, the early manuscript discovered in St Joseph University, Beirut, 3 and its detailed textual analysis in this journal. 4 However good and useful might be the many printed editions of this and other important compositions, there is no substitute for engaging with the manuscript witness of these works, not only to gain a better impression of their original contents (any edited text being no more than just another version), but also of their context, their audience and their subsequent survival and transmission as a living work passing down the generations. In this short homage to Iraj Afshar, I want to focus on rather a neglected aspect of manuscript production, namely the rubrics and headings incorporated into the text, concentrating particularly on the story of Forud in the Shahnameh. Although it seems clear enough, in modern printed editions of the text of Ferdowsi s Shahnameh, where one episode or story (dastan) ends and the next begins, this is not always clear in the manuscript copies of the work. Some stories, indeed, follow seamlessly from the one before, with no indication of a break, such as would be marked by a rubric or text heading (sar-e dastan), while others may be marked by headings that use a variety of titles, and often may not be placed at the same point in the text. This must be at least partly due to the nature of the work itself and the oral, nonliterary elements of its transmission or rather, its reception as a living text that scribes apparently felt free to alter or improve. 5 Other works seem not necessarily to have experienced the same problem; it may even be supposed that Ferdowsi himself gave very few formal headings, beyond signalling the beginning and ending of the episodes by appropriate verses of poetry, or 1 - The anonymous Mojmal al-tawarikh wa l-qisas, ed. Iraj Afshar & Mahmoud Omidsalar, Tehran, 1379/2001; the Jung of Mortza Quli Shamlu, ed. Iraj Afshar & Ahmad Monzavi, Tehran, 1382/2003; the Tajziyat al-amsar wa tazjiyat al-a sar of Wassaf, ed. Iraj Afshar, Mahmoud Omidsalar & Nader Mottalebi Kashani, Tehran, 1388/ Facsimile of the British Library ms. Add. 21,103, Shahnama by Ferdowsi, ed. Iraj Afshar & Mahmoud Omidsalar, Tehran, 1384/ Facsimile of the ms. of the Oriental Library of Saint Joseph University, NC. 43, Beirut, ed. Iraj Afshar, Mahmoud Omidsalar & Nader Mottalebi Kashani, Tehran, 1389/ See Nameh-ye Baharestan VIII-IX, nos (2007-8), pp and X, no. 15 (2009),pp Most obviously also, in the case of Hamd-Allah Mostowfi s edition of the 1330s and Baysonghor Mirza s famous revision of the text in 1430.