Page 240 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

Plate 26.2 Pale green jade jug, inscribed
with the titles of Ulugh Beg b. Shah Rukh,
c. 1425–38, Samarqand. Height 14.5cm,
diameter 16cm. Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation, Lisbon, Inv. 328

married female descendants of Chinggis Khan, which respective possession of objects of Chinese manufacture.
permitted him to use the same honorific title of Güregen, or The texts of their books contain the classics of Persian
‘son-in-law’ used by his grandfather. The coins struck by literature, but the ways in which those books were decorated
Ulugh Beg made reference to his grandfather by employing provides insight into the new artistic currents reaching the
a symbolic device associated with him as well as his name. Timurid dominions from Ming China. These examples will
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Ulugh Beg’s special connection with his grandfather is also be taken in chronological order, beginning with a
suggested by the fact that in 1425 he arranged for the consideration of Iskandar Sultan’s manuscripts and then
transportation of a large slab of black jade from the region of turning to one associated with Ibrahim Sultan.
Qarshi in Transoxiana to Samarqand where he had it Iskandar Sultan’s short but tumultuous life highlights the
carved and placed over Timur’s grave. The texts inscribed competing quests for political power and military superiority
on it include a description of the circumstances under which among Timur’s descendants in the years following the
he had acquired this stone. The particulars about who had latter’s death in 1405. Iskandar Sultan’s court historian,
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shaped this slab of black jade and inscribed it with a text are Mu’in al-din Natanzi, claims that Iskandar received an
not known, but Ulugh Beg’s appreciation of this material is official envoy sent to him by the Yongle emperor. This envoy,
evident in the three jade drinking vessels which were whose journey from China is said to have taken two years,
inscribed with his name. Two of them, one in the British reached Shiraz in 1412–13 with an official letter and various
Museum (see Pl. 1.5), the other at the Bharat Kala Bhavan Chinese objects, and was sent back to China with a letter in
in Banaras, are made of green jade and have dragon Iskandar’s name as well as ‘Iranian rarities’. Iskandar,
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handles. The third example, now in the Calouste whose excessive ambition brought him into conflict with his
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Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, was fashioned from a pale Timurid relations and ultimately led to his execution in 1415
green stone and was clearly modelled after a metalwork on the orders of his uncle Shah Rukh (r. 1409–47) whose
object of a type known to have been produced in Herat; its position as Timur’s successor had been accepted by the other
principal ornament consists of Ulugh Beg’s name and titles members of the dynasty, appears to have viewed his relations
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(Pl. 26.2). The far-flung territories inhabited by Timur’s with the Chinese emperor as a confirmation of his own
descendants led to a proliferation of princely courts exalted status.
including those in the city of Herat, the residence of his son, The most clear-cut link between Iskandar’s association of
Shah Rukh, as well as one at Shiraz in south-west Iran, East Asian visual symbols with his own political ambitions
which was the successive residence of two of Timur’s comes in an illustration in a manuscript anthology made for
grandsons, Iskandar Sultan b. Umar Shaikh (r. 1404–14) and him which is now in the collection of the British Library (Pl.
Ibrahim Sultan b. Shah Rukh (r. 1414–35). Shiraz, renowned 26.3) a book that is sometimes called ‘Iskandar’s Miscellany’.
as the birthplace and residence of several important Persian The picture in question illustrates a story in the Iskandar-
authors including Sa’di (d. 1292) and Hafiz (d. 1389), had by name of Nizami describing how that prince sought the advice
the later 14th century become a major centre for the of a reclusive sage who lived in a mountain retreat. This
production of literary manuscripts. painting’s starry sky, and the fact that the young prince is led
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Manuscripts made for both Iskandar Sultan and by a servant carrying a candle, indicate that this visit is
Ibrahim Sultan contain images revealing the two prince’s nocturnal.

230 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450