Assad Ibn Kariba Attacks the Army of Iraj Suddenly by Night

This illustration displays varied characteristics of style found in the immense Hamza-nama manuscript for which it was made. The painting is divided into a foreground, a middle ground, and a background, with the figures and objects in each field smaller than those in the field before. Thus, although the space is not totally coherent, an impression of spatial recession is created. The action is spread across the three zones, but the changes in scale, with the most important scene at the fore, help clarify the narrative. Stylistic elements of Persian inspiration include the ovoid faces with refined features and the stylized rock forms. Some of the faces are more naturalistic, however; they convey that sense of the event's irmnediacy so highly valued by Mughal artists.

Steven M. Kossak in [Kossak 1997]


Asad Karb Launches a Night Attack on the Camp of Malik Iraj

Combat sometimes occasions a special kind of frenzy, when men can no longer remember why or against whom they must fight, but are compelled by some unspeakable primal rage to lash out blindly against everyone and everything around them. Such morally ambivalent violence is relatively rare in the , in which rather clear distinctions between the righteous and the depraved are the norm.

The text that describes the circumstances of this scene of carnage is now missing, but both the caption and the text that follows mention a night raid carried out by Pahlavan Asad against Malik Iraj's camp. Asad leads the attack against Iraj, a sun-worshipper, albeit one with persistent sympathy for Hamza's cause. But the darkness that ostensibly provides cover for Asad's men also causes them to lose sight of reason, and the raid soon degenerates into a bloodbath.

"...When the benighted infidels opened their eyes and recognized each other, they saw that strangers in their midst were as rare as God's love was among them. They had killed so many of their own that it was beyond reckoning."

Asad himself leaves the scene and does not return to his fortress that night, and thus is spared Iraj's wrath the next morning.

For a scene purportedly depicting wanton violence, this illustration has a curiously placid quality. Soldiers—including two only semi-dressed to indicate that they have been roused from their beds—fight in close quarters amid clusters of tents, but their numbers are quite modest, and there is no sign whatsoever of rampant bloodletting. For the most part, the warfare seems routine, as soldiers insde and outside the fortress exchange volleys of arrows and musket fire. Indeed, some actions—a man winding his turban in the lower left or another grasping the reins of a donkey in the center of the painting—are remarkably mundane. The setting contributes to the paradoxical sense of order, counteracting hints of rough-and-tumble combat with stabilizing tents and fortress walls. And occupying the center of the composition is the mounted Asad, who despite his raised sword and the approach of an enemy soldier, is the very picture of aloof composure.

The handsome Asad represents a youthful princely type found throughout the manuscript; his closest counterparts are the orange-clad figure of Qasim/Hamza in the Brooklyn Museum of Art (no. 24.47, cat. 48 in this volume) and the mounted Farrukh-Nizhad in another illustration attributed here to Basavana.[1] Like the aforementioned Farrukh-Nizhad this figure of Asad is dressed in a sensitively modeled orange , has a long sword suspended from his belt by a golden chain, and tenders the chains of his horse at chest height. The two faces are exceedingly similar, the only difference being that Asad's features appear more delicate, an impression conveyed by his lightly rendered eyes and wispy hair, and probably accentuated by the considerable surface abrasion in the area. A better-preserved example of this same figure type, the spear-holder dressed in green at lower left, corroborates Basavana's involvement in this painting. The artist probably supplied the billowing rocks and the tree at the right, the latter graced by two superb herons.

The familiar designs of the tents and the trappings of Iraj's camp are strong indications that they are the work of Shravana, an artist who collaborated with Basavana on two other camp scenes.[2] Most of the figures, however, can be attributed to a third artist, Tara, whose style at this time is documented in an ascribed painting in the ,[3] and who later collaborated with Basavana on two paintnigs in the manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[4] Tara likes figures with ample and often unruly mustaches and beards; he also uses large, glaring eyes and bared teeth to create an impressive range of explicit and energetic expressions.

John Seyller in [Seyler et al. 2002]

Footnotes:

1. MAK, Vienna, B.I. 8770/46 published in Egger, Gerhart, Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagenstalt, 1974, pl. 42 and the Reconstruction, no. 89.

2. MAK, Vienna, B.I. 8770/22 and 8770/58. See Reconstruction, nos. 84 and 100.

3. Folio 60b; Simsar, Muhammad, transl. and ed. Graz: Akademische Druck u. Verlagsanhalt, 1978, pl. 13; and Milo Beach, ,Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1992, fig. 9.

4. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, I.S. 2-1896, nos 17/117 and 61/117; Sen, Geeti, . Varanasi: Lustre press, 1984, pls. 20 and 44.


Assad, Son of Kariba, Makes a Surprise Night Attack on Iraj's Army

This painting illustrated an episode in the rich cycle of tales of exciting exploits and heroic deeds allegedly centered around the life of Hamzeh, a paternal uncle of the Prophet. The manuscript, of which less than 150 leaves are known today, originally, according to contemporary sources, contained 1400 paintings on cotton in twelve unbound volumes. The large size enabled an audience to view the illustration as it was held up, while the text, written on paper and pasted to the reverse (except on a very few pages where the text appears on the same side as the picture), was read aloud. These stories were favorites of the emperor Akbar as a youth, and this epic was the first major work of his studio, which was the crucible for the Mughal style of painting. According to contemporary accounts, Mir Sayyid 'Ali and 'Abd al-Samad, the two Persian masters from the court of Shah Tamasp who had accompanied Humayun, Akbar's father, on his return from exile in Tabriz, were in charge of the production, with fifty painters working under them. The fusion of stylistic sources—Persian, Indian, Central Asian, and even European—reflects the cosmopolitan character of Akbar's court, where a variety of religious beliefs and ethnic origins came together, to the enrichment of Mughal culture. The paintings from the Hanzanama, in their stirring action, forthright vigor, and shrewd powers of observation, mirror the character of Akbar himself.

Marie Lukens Swietochowski in [Berlin 1981]

Assad Ibn Kariba Attacks the Army of Iraj Suddenly by Night

Akbar's father, Humayun, lost the fragile empire founded by his father, Babur, and took refuge at the Safavid court at Tabriz. On his victorious return he brought two renowned Persian artists with him, Mir Sayyid 'Ali and 'Abd al-Samad, founders of the royal Mughal workshop. One of the earliest and certainly the most ambitious projects of the fledging atelier was the manuscript with fourteen hundred illustrations on cotton, generally with the text on paper pasted on the other side, in twelve unbound volumes, of which only about 150 have survived. The adventures of Amir Hamza are exciting and action filled tales alledgedly based on the life of the uncle of the Prophet, Hamza, conflated with the legendary life of another hero of the same name from Sistan. They reflect the energy, vigor, and love of action of Akbar himself, but also his political acumen, in the blending of Persian and Indian elements, as well as his discening patron's eye and demand for the highest quality.

Here the vigor exuded by the rough and tumble of an army camp contrasts with the delicate floral patterns of carpets and canopies, the rich variety of architecture in the walled town and the exquisidly observed and painted resting cranes in the tree at the right.

Marie Lukens Swietochowski in [Walker et al. 1994]

Inscription: Inscribed in Persian in nasta'liq script:
Asad attacks Iraj at night and assails [his army] with arrows

Lockwood de Forest (American), New York (until 1918; sold to MMA)

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