Reassessing Early Safavid Art and History Thirty Five Years after Dickson & Welch 1981

Martin Dickson once confided to Stuart Cary Welch that twenty five years would pass before our fellow specialists would fully comprehend what we had achieved. The achievement he was referring to is the monumental double volume The Houghton Shahnama (1981) still ill-understood thirty five years later. Their achievement is a treasure trove of information that needs to be rediscovered and reused. Three recent papers that tried to discredit Dickson and Welch provided the impetus to revisit some of the complex manuscripts that they had analyzedincluding the British Library Khamseh (O. 2265) and the Cartier Divan of Hafez to discover historical details that provide a better insight into Safavid society.