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Lot Essay
In AH 801⁄1398 AD, Timur, on his way to conquer Delhi, inspected the beautiful palace of Jahannuma, built by Firuz Shah Tughluq. This painting would seem to illustrate the building of the palace by Firuz Shah Tughluq rather than Timur’s visit (for a translation of this episode, see Cherefeddin Ali (Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi), The History of Timur Bec, 2 vols., London 1723, vol.2, p.51).
The site of Kusk-i Jahan Numa (World-reflecting Palace) is today better known as Kusk-i Sikargah, the Hunting Palace of Firoz Shah (Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fraś, History preserved in names: Delhi urban toponyms of Perso-Arabic origin, https://www.academia.edu/81150334/History_preserved_in_names_Delhi_urban_toponyms_of_Perso_Arabic_origin, accessed 22Sep25). It forms a part of the Kotla Firuz Shah. Bearing in mind Timur’s astonishment at the site and the fact that it was worth discussing in some detail in the run-up to Timur’s assault on the city of Delhi, the name was almost certainly intended to cover the entire area which would have been built only a few decades before by Firuz Shah. Sharaf al-Din Yazdi cannot resist a moment of adulation of Timur, stating that the palace had been given the name Jahan Numa, “the mirror of the universe, because of its fine prospect; though one would think this name was rather given it, to prognosticate that it should fall into the hands of the monarch of the universe”.
In the Zafarnama it is stated that before the attack on Delhi itself, the palace was used as a storage place for “a great quantity of corn and ammunition [……] and that this great city should be blocked up”. This painting seems to depict the building of the palace rather than the storage of munitions and provisions, let alone Timur “taking the diversion of walking in the palace of Jahan Numa” with “seven hundred cavaliers” (all quotes from Cherefeddin Ali (Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi), The History of Timur Bec, 2 vols., London 1723, vol. 1).
This folio presents a rare Mughal depiction of a building which today is a ruin but at the time of painting was only a hundred years old.
The site of Kusk-i Jahan Numa (World-reflecting Palace) is today better known as Kusk-i Sikargah, the Hunting Palace of Firoz Shah (Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fraś, History preserved in names: Delhi urban toponyms of Perso-Arabic origin, https://www.academia.edu/81150334/History_preserved_in_names_Delhi_urban_toponyms_of_Perso_Arabic_origin, accessed 22Sep25). It forms a part of the Kotla Firuz Shah. Bearing in mind Timur’s astonishment at the site and the fact that it was worth discussing in some detail in the run-up to Timur’s assault on the city of Delhi, the name was almost certainly intended to cover the entire area which would have been built only a few decades before by Firuz Shah. Sharaf al-Din Yazdi cannot resist a moment of adulation of Timur, stating that the palace had been given the name Jahan Numa, “the mirror of the universe, because of its fine prospect; though one would think this name was rather given it, to prognosticate that it should fall into the hands of the monarch of the universe”.
In the Zafarnama it is stated that before the attack on Delhi itself, the palace was used as a storage place for “a great quantity of corn and ammunition [……] and that this great city should be blocked up”. This painting seems to depict the building of the palace rather than the storage of munitions and provisions, let alone Timur “taking the diversion of walking in the palace of Jahan Numa” with “seven hundred cavaliers” (all quotes from Cherefeddin Ali (Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi), The History of Timur Bec, 2 vols., London 1723, vol. 1).
This folio presents a rare Mughal depiction of a building which today is a ruin but at the time of painting was only a hundred years old.