SIGNED MURAR, MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1630

INSCRIPTIONS:
In the handkerchief: shabīh-i Khidmatparast Khavāṣṣ, ʿamal-i Murār, 'Likeness of Khidmatparast the favourite, the work of Murār'

The so-called ‘Nasir al-Din Shah Album’ from which this folio comes, is named for the Qajar ruler of Iran (r.1848-96) under whose patronage the album underwent a number of alterations. The paintings were originally all the work of the imperial Mughal atelier and were reportedly taken to Iran after Nadir Shah’s sack of Delhi in 1739. There are eighty-four folios from the album in the Gulistan Palace Library in Tehran, fourteen in the Chester Beatty Library and another eighteen dispersed amongst various collections. In her examination of the albums, Elaine Wright suggests a dating of 1627-45 (Elaine Wright, Muraqqa’. Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, exhibition catalogue, Virginia, 2008, p.141).

A neat inscription in the white handkerchief held by the subject of our painting identifies him as ‘Khidmat parast’. This title, which literally translates ‘deals with the Emperor’s body’, was held by Hayat Khan (d. AH 1068/19 May 1658) who was the head of the Emperor’s domestic servants and a personal attendant to Shah Jahan. In this portrait he wears a medallion around his neck with a tiny portrait of the Emperor, demonstrating his close link. Hayat Khan is illustrated a number of times in the Windsor Padshanama (Milo Cleveland Beach and Ebba Koch, King of the World. The Padshahnama. An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, exhibition catalogue, Washington DC, 1997, nos. 13, 14, 25, 30, 32, 38, 43, 44 and 45). In one of the paintings (no.30, pp.187-88), he is described as taking an active role in a lion attack, whereas in the others he is placed in his more usual role as a whisk-bearer standing at the Emperor’s side. The whisk held by the figure on our painting is clearly indicative of his role at court.

Murar (sometimes transcribed Murad), who signed this painting, was an important court painter during the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan. He was famously trained by the master Abu’l Hassan Mashhadi, Nadir al-Zaman. A number of paintings by him are found in the Windsor Padshahnama, including a number featuring the subject of our painting, Hayat Khan (listed above). In one of the Padshahnama paintings by Murar, Hayat Khan is identified through a small inscription, in the white belt around his waist, very similar to the inscription on ours (Beach and Koch, op.cit., no.44, pp.207-208). Another of the paintings in the Padshahnama includes Murar's self-portrait (Beach and Koch, op.cit., no. 9, p.36). Murar’s paintings in the manuscript are generally thought to date between 1633-45. His figures are described by Beach and Koch as being precisely drawn and placed and with complete consistency down to the smallest detail. He is said to have been far more observant of the physical differences and character of his subjects as compared to some of the other artists working on the manuscript. This attention to the smallest level of detail, is apparent in the present painting. Another single figure study, in a private collection is illustrated in B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Wonders of a Golden Age, Paintings at the Court of the Great Mughals, exhibition catalogue, Zurich, 1987, no.71, p.146. That painting illustrates an aristocrat, identified as Hakim al-Mulk, standing against a dark green ground very like ours, against which the colours glow. Like our portrait, it is a particularly sensitive likeness and the workmanship is deft and precise.

The calligraphy on the reverse of our folio comprises selected verses from the Shahnama of Firdawsi arranged in two columns with the text reserved against gold ground. Folios from this particular Shahnama appear to have been used on numerous folios from this album. Another folio from the Nasir al-Din Shah Album with a similar calligraphic reverse is in the Chester Beatty Library (CBL In 50.9; published Wright, op.cit., no.78, pp.426-27).