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Zumrud Shah falls into a pit and is beaten by gardeners
Unknown - Enlarge image
Zumrud Shah falls into a pit and is beaten by gardeners
- Object:
Painting
- Place of origin:
India (possibly, made)
Pakistan (possibly, made) - Date:
ca. 1562-1577 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Opaque watercolour on prepared cotton backed with paper; Persian text on reverse written on paper backed with cotton; the four layers glued together
- Museum number:
IS.1516-1883
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The Hamzanama, or 'Book of Hamza' was commissioned by the great Mughal emperor Akbar in the mid-16th century. The epic story of a character based very loosely on the life of the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad chronicles the fantastic adventures of Hamza as he and his band of heroes fight against the enemies of Islam. The stories, from a long-established oral tradition, were written down in Persian, the language of the court, in multiple volumes. These originally had 1400 illustrations, of which fewer than 200 survive today. Work probably began in about 1562 and took 15 years to complete.
This particular illustration shows the giant Zumrud Shah, Hamza's enemy, who has fallen into a well in a garden. The gardeners suspect him of having stolen fruit from their trees and beat him around the head with their spades while the real culprits, a family of bears, frolic in the foreground.
