"Ottoman Army Entering a City", Folio from a Divan of Mahmud `Abd al-Baqi

Ottoman Army Entering a City


This painting is quintessentially Ottoman Turkish in the presentation of its subject. The Ottomans preferred illustrations of historical subjects in their manuscripts, demonstrating, where possible, the greater glory and power of the Ottoman Empire. Not for them the poetic lyricism of the Persian painter. Here the serried ranks of figures on their way to the city gate give a realistic impression of an army on the move, welcomed by a fanfare by the band situated above the gate, while the townspeople peering from over the wall or from apertures in it convey a very human curiosity. The group outside the walls behind the turbanned figure of rank carry a banner with the double-pointed sword given by the Prophet to his son-in-law 'Ali. The Museum owns an Ottoman banner with this emblem. Just behind the foreground figures there seems to be a procession of Persians wearing Safavid turbans, with a youthful princely figure on horseback in the center, flanked by two distinguised graybeards on foot. There is not sufficient text available to be able to identify all aspects of this miniature.

Marie Lukens Swietochowski in [Walker et al. 1994]

Inscription: The Turkish calligraphy on the painting is translated as: Good news for the Persians, may they be happy. Mir Haidar [a prince of 'Ali] the light of the eyes of Iran is coming.

There is a poem written in Turkish on the back of this folio that has not been translated.

George D. Pratt, New York (by 1933–d. 1935); Vera Amherst Hale Pratt, New York (life interest 1935–45)

Mexico City. Colegio de San Ildefonso. "Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York," September 30, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 22.

Grube, Ernst J. "The Ottoman Empire." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 26, no. 5 (January 1968). no. 32, p. 215, ill. (b/w).

Nickel, Helmut. Warriors and Worthies: Arms and Armor Through the Ages. New York: Atheneum, 1969. p. 91, ill.

Swietochowski, Marie, and Richard Ettinghausen. "Islamic Painting." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., vol. 36, no. 2 (Autumn 1978). p. 48, ill. (b/w).

Milstein, Rachel. Miniature Painting in Ottoman Baghdad. Islamic art and architecture ; no. 5. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1990.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daniel S. Walker, Arturo Ponce Guadián, Sussan Babaie, Stefano Carboni, Aimee Froom, Marie Lukens Swietochowski, Tomoko Masuya, Annie Christine Daskalakis-Matthews, Abdallah Kahil, and Rochelle Kessler. "Colegio de San Ildefonso, Septiembre de 1994–Enero de 1995." In Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994. no. 22, pp. 88–89, ill. (color).

Tanindi, Zeren. "Transformation of Words to Images." RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics vol. 43 (Spring, 2003). p. 135, ill. fig. 1 (b/w).