Page 22 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

seeking the eternal
A watercolour painting made in Mughal India in ca. 1615–1618 depicting a bejewelled and haloed Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) favouring the Su Shaykh Husayn with a book. The painting is an allegory. Jahangir, who adopted the name meant ‘Seizer of the World’ and honori c
title of Nur ud-Din (‘Light of Faith’), is shown to prefer the poor and pious shaykh to the kings depicted at a distance from the ruler and represented by the Ottoman sultan and King James i of England (r. 1603–1625). The painting’s artist Bichitr (active ca. 1610–1660), a Hindu, has also included himself in the painting with a self-portrait bowing before the king on the lower le . The painting also has a number of European styled cherubs, two of who write in Persian at the base of the hourglass pedestal of Jahangir’s throne, ‘O Shah, May the Span of Your Life be
a Thousand Years’. The painting’s frame is densely decorated with colourful owers. Jahangir was known for his patronage of botanical paintings and drawings.
Jahangir’s successor, Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) built the Taj Mahal
in Agra as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal
(d. 1631). Built on the banks of the Yamuna, the Taj Mahal is a complex of buildings set within a garden, at the north end of which is the main mausoleum built of brick faced with white marble decorated with precious and semi-precious stones including lapis lazuli, sapphire, cornelian, jasper, chrysolite and heliotrope.