Various battles ensued, and Varqa's father and Rabīʿ and his two sons are killed, until Golshah was finally rescued.
[1] The epic is based on an old Arab story,[1] but the only known manuscript is a 13th-century edition, generally held to be a product of early 13th-century Seljuks.
[4] The author of the miniatures in the manuscript is the painter Abd ul-Mumin al-Khoyi, born in the city of Khoy in the Azerbaijan region.
[5] The miniatures constitute the first known example of illustrated Persian-language manuscript, dating from the pre-Mongol era, and are useful in studying weapons of the period.
[5][12] Particularly, metal face masks and chainmail helmets in Turkic fashion, and armor with small metal plates connected through straps, large round shields (the largest of them called "kite-shields") and long teardrop shields, armoured horses are depicted.
[5] The weapons and armour types depicted in the miniatures were common in the Middle East and the Caucasus in the Seljuk era.