A KING VISITS SHAYKH 'ALLAMA

BUKHARA, CENTRAL ASIA, CIRCA 1630

Details

A KING VISITS SHAYKH 'ALLAMA
BUKHARA, CENTRAL ASIA, CIRCA 1630
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, Shaykh 'Allama kneels on a raised dais as a royal figure and his courtiers bring gifts, set in a rocky landscape with a large tree extending into the upper left hand margin, 5ll. of nasta'liq script above and 7ll. below divided into four columns with gold rules, reverse with 21ll. of faded nasta'liq script, mounted, framed and glazed
Visible 13¾ x 9 7/8in. (34.8 x 25cm.); frame 17¼ x 14½in. (44 x 36.7cm.)

Lot Essay

The inventive style of this painting is very similar to a painting in a copy of the Zafarnama dated to the equivalent of 1628-29 AD in the Uzbek National Library in Tashkent. The caricature of the courtier in the orange kaftan in the lower left hand corner with his neck hidden by his collar is very close in style to some of the figures in the Tashkent painting (Elmira Marufovna Ismailova, Oriental Miniatures of Abu Raihon Beruni Institute, Tashkent, 1980, no. 36).

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