This volume is the earlier of two copies of the Shahnamah in the Royal Collection; for the other, see RCIN 1005014. The Shahnama is the national epic of Iran and tells the history of Iran (Persia) from the earliest times to the Arab invasion in the early 7th century AD. It is the longest poem ever written by a single author and comprises some 50,000 verses.

The manuscript dates from late sixteenth century Iran and contains 88 illustrations. These are the work of at least four different artists but many were overpainted in India in the eighteenth century. The same artists appear to have worked on the Warren Hastings Shahnamah manuscript in the British Library (BL MS 3540).

The illuminations include a double page illuminated frontispiece on ff. 1v-2r, and decorated headings on ff. 160r, 162v, 163r and the final folio, f.283. These are not original to the manuscript and are eighteenth century Indian additions.

This copy of the Shahnamah is thought to have belonged to Tipu Sultan of Mysore (r. 1782-99). The folios were re-bound in a random order in Calcutta, c.1805, in bindings of gold-blocked red morocco. At least 45 folios of the original manuscript are missing.

A note which accompanied the volume reads 'for the King's Most Excellent Majesty. A Copy of the Shah Nameh, a Persian Poem. Hastings'. The Marquis of Hastings also presented several gifts of Indian arms and armour to George IV.