"Haji Husain Bukhari", Folio from the Shah Jahan Album

55.121.10.28 verso–Calligraphy

THIS LEAF bears the same Persian quatrain as pl.12 in this volume; the latter is, however, signed "By its scribe, 'Ali," while here only the signature of Mir-'Ali appears. The writing perhaps is by Mahmud Shihabi Siyavushani. The opening words Huwa al-'Aziz (he is the mighty) may be understood as an allusion to the name of the Bukharan prince 'Abdul-'Aziz in whose service both Mir-'Ali and Mahmud Shihabi were employed. This folio is written in a more elegant style than that of MMA fol. 19r (pl. 12 in this volume), but the possibility of its being an imitation–dating perhaps even as late as the eighteenth century–cannot be excluded as it is found on the reverse of a late miniature.


The calligraphy is surrounded by a story of a youth who recites in every rak'a (unit) of his morning prayer the Koranic verse: "Do you not see how your Lord dealt with .... "

This can be either Sura 89/6 (" ... dealt with the people of 'Ad") or Sura 105/1 (" ... dealt with the people of the elephant"). Both verses speak of God's wrath toward the enemies of the true faith. It appears that this verse was considered very powerful against misfortune for, as the story tells us, the youth was blessed with the "sun of happiness."

Annemarie Schimmel in [Welch et al. 1987]

THE GOLD garland-like scroll of the border, made up of overlapping leaves with a palmette and floral scroll beneath it, was patterned on the border of MMA fol. 24v (pl. 57 in this volume). Not only is the drawing and handling of the bush not nearly so fine here, but there are also
differences in the design. Here the scroll gives a slightly unpleasant impression–it brings to mind a congregation of snakes, partly because the undulating ribands do not come together pleasingly, as in the other folio, but appear to have separate lives of their own. The palmettes and flower heads in the background are somewhat heavy and awkward, lacking the delicacy and grace of the seventeenth-century model.

Marie L. Swietochowski in [Welch et al. 1987]

55.121.10.28 recto–Hajji Husayn Bukhari

INSCRIBED (in small nasta'liq): shabih-i Hajji
Husayn-i Bukhari, raqam-i Us tad Mansur (a
portrait of Hajji Husayn Bukhari, done by Master
Mansur)

THE ONLY person with whom this portrait can be identified is the Hajji Husayn who was a disciple and successor to Shaykh Salim Chishti at Shaykh Salim's khanaqah in Sikri.[1] Hajji Husayn's epitaph, carved above a veranda doorway in the structure at Fatehpur-Sikri known as the Jama'atkhana, gives the date of his death chronogrammatically as A.H. 1000 (A.D. 1591 ).[2]

The Chishti saint Shaykh Salim, who was greatly revered by Akbar, had predicted that the emperor would have three sons, as Jahangir describes in his memoirs: "During those days when my exalted father was desirous of having a son, there was a great dervish by the name of Shaykh Salim, who had traversed many of the stages of life, and who dwelt on a mountain near Sikri, a village dependency of Agra, and whom the people of that area held in the greatest reverence. Inasmuch as my father used to apply to dervishes, he held converse with this one too. One day, while meditating, he inadvertently asked [the shaykhj, 'How many sons will I have?' He answered, 'The Giver who bestows without obligation will grant you three sons.' My father then said, 'I vow that I will entrust my first son to your care and will give him into the lap of your love and affection to protect and preserve him.' The shaykh accepted this and said, 'May he be blessed. We shall give him our own name.[3]

In fulfillment of this vow Akbar sent Jahangir's mother to Shaykh Salim's residence shortly before the delivery, and there, on August 30, 1569, she gave birth to the future emperor, who was named Sultan-Muhammad Salim and whose regnal name later became Jahangir. Partially in tribute to Shaykh Salim, Akbar built the imperial city of Fatehpur at Sikri and moved his capital there.


Wheeler M. Thackston in [Welch et al. 1987]

LIKE THE portrait of Shaykh Hasan Chishti (MMA fol. 26v; pl. 91 in this volume), this portrait was painted in a reverent mood, presumably by a devout Muslim. To emphasize that Husayn Bukhari had made the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), the artist brought out a brilliant green for the robe and set it against a sky of even more visionary green. Lest his point be missed, he lavished the picture with more greens–in the dark foreground, in the electrifying greens of the arabesques in the carpet, and in those of the still life and tree. And to make these hues seem even greener, he wrapped the devotee in a contrasting pink-purple shawl–reddish hues being typical of the Chishti order–and sat him beneath a flowering rosebush.

Although not even the devotee's small white cat (a favorite animal of Sufis) can be related to the work of Mansur, the nineteenth-century pasticheur ascribed his work to him.

Stuart Cary Welch in [Welch et al. 1987]

THE PICTURE is surrounded with script that is contemporary with it and contains lines from Jami's epic Yusuf and Zulaykha.[4]

Annemarie Schimmel in [Welch et al. 1987]

THIS RECTO portrait has an innermost border of simulated cutout poetry; the inner border has a palmette and flower-head scroll in gold on a blue ground rendered in a rather slapdash fashion. The floral border has lost the harmony of both color and drawing evident in the seventeenth-century borders. Its gold outlines are not very precise, and it gives an overall impression of agitation.

Marie L. Swietochowski in [Welch et al. 1987]

Footnotes:

1. Badaoni, 'Abd-ul-Qadir ibn-i-Muluk-Shah. Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh. 3 vols. Ed. William Nassau Lees and Ahmad Ali. Trans. George S. A. Ranking, W H. Lowe, and Wolseley Haig. Calcutta, 1865–89. Reprint, Patna, 1973, II, p. 344.

2. Begley, Wayne E. Monumental Islamic Calligraphy from India. Villa Park, Ill., 1985, p. 89.

3. Jahangir Gurkani, Nur al-Din Muhammad. Jahangirnama: Tuzuk-i Jahangiri. Ed. Muhammad Hashim. Teheran, A.H. 1349/ A.D. 1970, p. 1f.

4· Jami, 'Abdur-Rahman. Haft Aurang. Ed. Aqa Mustafa and Mudarris Gilani. Teheran, 1958, p. 728.

Signature: 55.121.10.28 verso:
In Persian, in lower left corner triangle: The slave Mir 'Ali.

Inscription: 55.121.10.28 recto:
In Persian, along right edge of painting: Portrait of Haji Husain of Bukhara painted by Ustad Mansur.

55.121.10.28 verso:
In Persian, in upper right corner triangle: He is the most mighty one.

Jack S. Rofe, Scotland (in 1929; sale, Sotheby's London,December 12, 1929, no. 120, to Kevorkian); Hagop Kevorkian, New York, from 1929]; [ Kevorkian Foundation, New York, until 1955; gift and sale to MMA]

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Emperor's Album: Images of Mughal India," October 21, 1987–February 14, 1988, nos. 93 and 94.

Sotheby's: Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures. London: Sotheby's, New York, 1929. no. 120.

Dimand, Maurice S. "An Exhibit of Islamic and Indian Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n. s., vol. 14 (December 1955). p. 98, ill. (b/w).

Welch, Stuart Cary, Annemarie Schimmel, Marie Lukens Swietochowski, and Wheeler M. Thackston. The Emperors' Album: Images of Mughal India. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. nos. 93, 94, pp. 270–73, ill. verso pl. 93 (b/w); recto pl. 94 (b/w).