Sultans of the South: Arts of India's Deccan Courts, 1323-1687

Sultans of the South: Arts of India's Deccan Courts, 1323–1687

Haidar, Navina Najat, and Marika Sardar, eds.
2011
336 pages
250 illustrations
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Between the fourteenth and the seventeenth century, the Deccan plateau of south-central India was home to a series of important and highly cultured Muslim courts. Subtly blending elements from Iran, West Asia, and sometimes Europe, as well as southern and northern India, the arts produced under these sultanates are markedly different from those of the rest of India and especially from those created under Mughal patronage.

This publication, dedicated to the unique artistic output of the Deccan, is the result of a symposium held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2008. Updating prior research in this field, the essays in this volume respond to and challenge earlier perceptions of Deccani art by bringing to light previously unpublished paintings, investigating new works of literature, identifying otherwise unattributed carpets and textiles (including several in the Metropolitan Museum), and supplying fresh interpretations of rarely studied architectural monuments. Throughout, the Deccan's collections to the wider world are explored.

Special features of the book are the illustration of all thirty-four paintings from a sixteenth-century copy of the poem the Pem Nem, and new photography by Amit Pasricha of the Ibrahim Rauza in Bijapur, with the first full transcription and translation of the tomb's inscriptions.

Firman (Official Decree) With Illuminated Heading, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
dated 957 AH/1550 CE
The Fabulous Creature Buraq, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
ca. 1660–80
Emaciated Horse and Rider, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper; marbleized paper
ca. 1625
Demons Fighting Over an Animal Limb, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, India (Rajasthan, Bikaner or the Deccan)
India (Rajasthan, Bikaner or the Deccan)
late 17th century
Four Captive Demons, Watercolor and gold on silk
1470–1500
"The Feast of Sada", Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, Abu'l Qasim Firdausi  Iranian, Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi
Sultan Muhammad
ca. 1525
"Tahmuras Defeats the Divs", Folio 23v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, Abu'l Qasim Firdausi  Iranian, Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi
Sultan Muhammad
ca. 1525
Carpet, Cotton (warp and weft), wool (pile); asymmetrically knotted pile
mid-17th century
Hanging, Cotton; plain weave, embroidered in silk
mid-18th century
Bed Cover (Palampore), Cotton; plain weave, mordant painted and dyed, resist-dyed
18th century
Hanging, Silk; plain-weave, embroidered
16th–17th century
Kalamkari Hanging with Figures in an Architectural Setting, Cotton; plain weave, mordant-painted and dyed, resist-dyed
ca. 1640–50
Kalamkari Rumal, Cotton; plain weave, mordant painted and dyed, resist dyed
ca. 1640–50

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Haidar, Navina Najat, Marika Sardar, and Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), eds. 2011. Sultans of the South: Arts of India’s Deccan Courts, 1323-1687. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia. New York : New Haven, Conn. ; London: Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Distributed by Yale University Press.