Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King

Winner of the 2018 Meggendorfer Prize for the Best PopUp Book!

Riding on the success of Hamid Rahmanian's best-selling book, Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Books, we have partnered with paper engineer extraordinaire, Simon Arizpe to create a magical and dynamic new pop up book, based on the art and stories of our Epic Shahnameh. We have created the very first pop up book based on a traditional Iranian story to delight the imaginations of readers all over the world from ages 2 to 102.

Art and Design: Hamid Rahmanian  |  Paper Engineer: Simon Arizpe
Text: Melissa Hibbard, Ahmad Sadri
Produced by Hamid Rahmanian at Fictionville Studio

The French edition is available from here

Now through March 22nd, our pop alar and award-winning pop up book Zahhak: The Legendary of the Serpent King is on sale for $60! Don’t miss this special price. Celebrate the Persian New Year and the coming of Spring with this beautiful book. US orders only.

We have printed a limited run of 3000 copies of the original pop up book, Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King. Thanks to the generous support of the WORLD WITHIN ORGANIZATION and New York State Council of the Arts


FOR ORDERS WITHIN THE US, SAVE BY PURCHASING MORE BOOKS.

Buy 6 books at $350 (US ORDERS ONLY)

Buy 12 books at $650 (US ORDERS ONLY)


Special Edition

We created a special edition book (edition of 280) signed by the artist, numbered and sealed that comes with a limited edition print from the illustrations used in the book and special silver foil imprint on the slipcase.
$200 (free shipping)


What the critics are saying

”Simply breathtaking” – Le Monde
"pure magic.” Libération
Magnificent, amazing, surprising, even hair-raising pop-up!”” – La Croix
A fairytale dream for children and a source of wonder for the whole family.” – L’Humanité
“A little marvel”_Le blog des livres animés
This book demands respect.” New York Journal of Books
“An incredible animated book, which is an architectural tour de force” – Télérama
Highly recommend” – Previews World
"This is one of the best pop-up book I've seen in a long time" – Robert Sabuda

As the legend goes , the foreign Prince Zahhak is swayed by the devil to murder his crowned father and usurp the thrown. Soon after, the crowned Zahhak is duped again by the devil whose seemingly respectful kisses turn into monstrous snakes that grow out of the king’s shoulders. The Serpent King grows infamous through out the land for his treachery and oppression of the known world. He rules for one thousand years before a noble and valiant young Iranian man named Feraydun gains the strength and army to defeat the unjust King.

.این کلیپ بزبان فارسی می باشد

Thank you to everyone who helped bring this book to life. 

The Bijan and Soraya Amin Foundation
Ali and Mojgan Amin
Mark Amin
Reza Amin
Nadar Ansari
Farid and Afsaneh Falsafi
Kourosh William Mansourian
Anne Mai
Fereshteh Amin and Hamid Shafipour
Pouya and Pantea Shafipour

Additional support was provided by Michael and Shirin Amin
Sanam Akhlagh and Morad Masjedi, Maryam Ansari, Margaret Ghadar
Kiamars Hajizadeh, Angela and Issac Larian
Hesam Rahmanian and Farshid and Gulia Zanjani

And the invaluable crowd-funded contributions made by our friends, family and community, including: 
Pouya Afshar, Afshar Publishing, Maria Afsharian, Jen Ahearn, Mohammad Ahmadabadi, SeyedAidin Azhangzad, Aitak Ajangzad, Shirin Alaghband, Fariba Alaghband, Shahrzad, Amir-Moez, Asefeh Asefi, Firouz Azima, Shaghayegh Azimi, Parisa Babaali, Soheila Bana, Mary Grace Barasi, Betty Ann Sharp, Pasha Behzadi, Kian Beyzavi, Elina Bromberg, Albert Brown, Phyllis Budne, Brendan Cashel, Elaine Cassell, Brigit Chasin, "Cityzen by Azin, LLC", Jenel Cohen, Marian Colquette, Nick Cooper, Catherine Croner, Pouria Dehgan, Morteza Dehghani, Simone Derayeh, Sara Dolatabadi, Heather Ecker, Rasmus Elling, Halleh Entekhabi, Julie Ershad, Noushin Farnoud, Neil Foster, Leila Ghaznavi, Azadeh Ghotbi, Najva Golshani, Babak Hakimizadeh, Bita Haynes, Katja Heinemann, John T Heinen, Tarneh Hemami, Julie and Bruce Hibbard, Nooshin Hojreh, Emitis Hosoda, Mark Houshmand, Kate Hyde, Kayhan Irani, Jahangir Jahanbakhshi, Leila Jahangiri, Pouya Jahanshahi, Kayvan Jahanshahi, Pourang Jahanshahi, Maryam Jamshidi, Farzaneh Javid, Mahnaz Johnson, Beth Jonquil, Tannaz Fassihi and Ali Joulae, Hossein Kalantari, Sina Kalbasi, Negin Karbassian, Ali Kashefian, Massoumeh Kaviani-Nejad, Leila Kazemi, Alex Khatibi, Hossein Khiabanian, Bessy and Navid Khonsari, Ahmad Kiarostami, James Kleefeld, George Lohmer, Lotte Els Van Elp, Parastoo Maboudi, Amineh Mahallati, Hossein Mahallati, Maryam Majd, Fatima Maleki, Amirhossein Masoumi, Seyed Ali Mehran Rokni, Rosston Meyer, Greg Minshall, Farzad Mobin, Fay Moghtader, Kamin Mohammadi, Ala Mohseni Mohseni, Avisheh Mohsenin, Shahrokh Mortazavi, Nazenin Moshiri, Akramalsadat Mostafanejad, Tomaj Motazed, Keyvani, Mariam Nayiny, Tucker Neel, Iman Mehrabi Nezhad, Mani Nilchiani, NYC-VISUAL, Sarah Olmstead, Zora ONeill, Jeryl Oristaglio, Babak Ossia, Frank Parker, Azadeh Parsapour, Trita Parsi, Marianne Petit, MaKay Picillo, Leila and Amir Hossein Pirnia, Caroline Popper, Ali Rahnema, Termeh Rassi, Hengameh Rastegar-Murphy, Rattapallax, Amir Rezvani, Anita Rice, MaryBeth Rogers, Katayoon Rokni, Shelley Rosenfeld, Pooyan Rouhiarmaki, Babak Sadeghi, Sanam Salehian, Nitin Sawhney, Francesca Searer, Neda Sharghi, Miss D Shields, Nazanin Shirazi, Hassan Shojania, Mojgan Shokri, Luke Simon, Kavita Singh, Seyed Sobhani, Sociarts.com.LLC, Isabel Soffer, Steven Johnson,  Sufi Path of love. Asra Syed, Asra Tafreshi, Parvin Taheri, Kamran Taherimoghaddam, Mandana Tavakoli, Jahan Tavakoli, Three Waters Productions LLC, Tara Tiba, Laleh Vakili, Katayoun Vaziri, Rainer Weller, Sachiko Willis, Dorothy Yule, and Sahar Zavareh.

This book was made possible with the support of Two Chairs