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Lot Essay
Having taken Sistan, Timur marched through the region around Bust where, among other places, he took the fortress of Dahna (in the area near the upper reaches of the Helmand river in Afghanistan, west of Kabul), which was held by the Tagachi(?) horde. After the fortress was taken, a tower was made of the heads of the slain. This event took place at some point after Shawwal AH 785/November-December 1383 AD (for a translation of this episode, see Cherefeddin Ali (Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi), The History of Timur Bec, 2 vols., London 1723, vol. 1, p. 247).
Sarwan (also transliterated as Shravana) was one of the older artists in the workshop, having worked on early projects including being one of the principal artists, entrusted with complete paintings, on the great Hamzanama project of the mid-1560s (John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza, Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India, Washington DC, 2002, attributes a number of paintings in that manuscript to this artist). John Seyller notes that his works at that early date show a maturity and attention to detail that stands out when compared to other artists working alongside him (Seyller, op.cit., p.101). He would therefore have been valued for his considerable experience as he worked on a number of the major Akbari manuscript projects of the last quarter of the century. These included the Darabnama of around 1580-85 (British Library, London, Or.4615), a now separated painting in the contemporaneous Tarikh-i Alfi of 1581-82 (formerly in the Ghose Collection, Kolkata, Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image, Washington DC: Freer Gallery, 1981, p.99), paintings for the Jaipur Razmnama of 1582-86 (Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II City Palace Museum, Jaipur, no inv. no.), the Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timuriyya of 1584 (Khoda Baksh Public Library, Patna, no. 551; HL 107), the British Library Baburnama, of around 1591 (British Library, London, Or.3714), the first Akbarnama of 1590-95 including a spectacular painting of the construction of Agra Fort, the right hand side of a double page designed by his much younger colleague, Miskin (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.2:46⁄1896). Having worked up designs by Lal in the Razmnama, he did so again in the Khamsa of Nizami (now in the Keir Collection at Dallas Museum of Art, K.1.2014.18), then continued working on the Iyar-i Danish of 1590-95 (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, In 04), the 1596 Jami al-Tawarikh (Golestan Palace Library, 2254-0347) again teamed with Miskin as the designer, and finally on the Delhi Baburnama of 1597-8 (National Museum, New Delhi, 50.326). Having been entrusted with important projects at the start of Akbar’s reign he must have been of considerable age at that stage and nothing more is recorded of him.
Of note in this particular painting is the two figures lower left, a father and young child, fleeing the action. This element of humanity stands out against the violence being enacted elsewhere. Exactly the same concept takes place in a Hamazanama scene that he painted some thirty years earlier (‘An Ayyar murders Qubad in his Sleep’, by Shravana/Sarwan, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.1508-1883). In the main composition of that scene we observe the brutal murder of Qubad. In the bottom right and corner a man, naked above the waist, lies shielding his young child from the scene. The echo in the current painting makes one wonder what lay in his own background that this element was so important.
Sarwan (also transliterated as Shravana) was one of the older artists in the workshop, having worked on early projects including being one of the principal artists, entrusted with complete paintings, on the great Hamzanama project of the mid-1560s (John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza, Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India, Washington DC, 2002, attributes a number of paintings in that manuscript to this artist). John Seyller notes that his works at that early date show a maturity and attention to detail that stands out when compared to other artists working alongside him (Seyller, op.cit., p.101). He would therefore have been valued for his considerable experience as he worked on a number of the major Akbari manuscript projects of the last quarter of the century. These included the Darabnama of around 1580-85 (British Library, London, Or.4615), a now separated painting in the contemporaneous Tarikh-i Alfi of 1581-82 (formerly in the Ghose Collection, Kolkata, Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image, Washington DC: Freer Gallery, 1981, p.99), paintings for the Jaipur Razmnama of 1582-86 (Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II City Palace Museum, Jaipur, no inv. no.), the Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timuriyya of 1584 (Khoda Baksh Public Library, Patna, no. 551; HL 107), the British Library Baburnama, of around 1591 (British Library, London, Or.3714), the first Akbarnama of 1590-95 including a spectacular painting of the construction of Agra Fort, the right hand side of a double page designed by his much younger colleague, Miskin (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.2:46⁄1896). Having worked up designs by Lal in the Razmnama, he did so again in the Khamsa of Nizami (now in the Keir Collection at Dallas Museum of Art, K.1.2014.18), then continued working on the Iyar-i Danish of 1590-95 (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, In 04), the 1596 Jami al-Tawarikh (Golestan Palace Library, 2254-0347) again teamed with Miskin as the designer, and finally on the Delhi Baburnama of 1597-8 (National Museum, New Delhi, 50.326). Having been entrusted with important projects at the start of Akbar’s reign he must have been of considerable age at that stage and nothing more is recorded of him.
Of note in this particular painting is the two figures lower left, a father and young child, fleeing the action. This element of humanity stands out against the violence being enacted elsewhere. Exactly the same concept takes place in a Hamazanama scene that he painted some thirty years earlier (‘An Ayyar murders Qubad in his Sleep’, by Shravana/Sarwan, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.1508-1883). In the main composition of that scene we observe the brutal murder of Qubad. In the bottom right and corner a man, naked above the waist, lies shielding his young child from the scene. The echo in the current painting makes one wonder what lay in his own background that this element was so important.