Page 496 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Islam spread rapidly from northwestern India is Master Bihzad of Herat, who with Sultan-
southward to the Deccan and beyond and eastward Muhammad belongs at the peak of Persia's artistic
as far as the Bay of Bengal. At Gaur and Pandua in hierarchy. Painting in Herat during the final quar-
Bengal, a major Islamic substyle developed, one ter of the fifteenth century, Bihzad looked freshly
best known — inasmuch as portable objects have and intently at nature, rarely depending upon
not been identified —from its architecture, orna- artistic prototypes as his models. He was infi-
ment, and architectural inscriptions. nitely and painstakingly skillful, deeply concerned
Among extant inscriptions, the present example with human nature, and a lover of animals, trees,
stands out for its masterfully organized proces- and flowers. His mind functioned with logical
sional rhythms. The composition brings to mind precision, and in his pictures every person, tree,
ships in full sail crossing choppy seas or an army fence, and wine cup is accurately and specifically
of men, horses, and elephants on the march, located. Somehow these Bihzadian elements
waving high their spears and banners. Such reached Mandu and were absorbed by the painter
designs were planned by masters of calligraphy, Haji Mahmud, probably Indian-born, whose name
employing skills usually associated with painters appears as illuminator as well as artist on folios i
or with sculptors of bas-reliefs. To them it was and 190 a.
important that each element be as beautiful as the Haji Mahmud can be assigned The Patriarch
totality of the design. After envisioning the fin- Abraham Plays Host to a Fire Worshiper, which
ished work—for which the calligrapher must have describes one of Sa'di of Shiraz's characteristically
contrived an appropriate image such as the ships witty yet moralistic tales. Abraham, an orthodox
or army we have found —he would have refined Muslim delighted by his own exquisite and lavish
the placement of the letters before writing the hospitality, once sighted a white-haired vagabond
inscription full scale on paper or directly onto the crossing the desert and invited him to dine. Eager
already prepared schist slab. Having devoted so to enjoy a delicious meal, Abraham said grace.
much attention to these initial stages, he While doing so, he noted the guest's silence and
undoubtedly must have supervised the stone- soon realized that he was a despised Zoroastrian!
mason who with utmost care chiseled, ground, Outraged that his purity should be defiled by such
and filed it until the majestic letters stood out in a being, he forced the hungry old fellow back into
low relief from the neutral background. the desert, whereupon an angel appeared and
In the Islamic world, calligraphers ranked admonished him: "For a century God has pro-
higher than other artists or craftsmen, owing to vided this fire worshiper's daily bread, and now
their closeness to the inspired words of the Proph- you presume to withhold the hand of bounty!"
et Muhammad and to other sacred texts that vir- 355 This copy of the Bustan consists of 229 folios
tually every calligrapher copied. Many shahs, Haji Mahmud and 43 miniatures. It was written in bold but
sultans, and emperors were not only patrons of graceful nasta'liq script by Shahsuvar al-Katib
calligraphy but also practiced the art. Many dif- THE PATRIARCH ABRAHAM (Shahsuvar the Scribe) for Nasir ad-Din Khalji of
ferent styles of writing were developed, some PLAYS HOST TO A FIRE WORSHIPER, Malwa, who reigned from Mandu between 1501
especially suited to monumental use, from the FROM THE BUSTAN OF SA'DI and 1511. He was the second of two patrons
time of the Prophet until recent times. In fif- of a slightly earlier manuscript, a cookery book
teenth-century Bengal a special variant of the c. 1500-1503 entitled the Ni'mat-nama (Book of Delicacies), in
Tughra script known as "bow and arrow" was Indian, Mandu, Sultanate which the patrons' formula for the good life
evolved, the style brilliantly represented here. opaque watercolor on 5 paper is delightfully outlined between recipes. This
5
The text of this inscription begins with words folio: 34.6 x 24.5 (i3 /s x 9 /sj 3 included a kingdom-within-a-kingdom in which,
5
x
6 /s)
16.2 (y /s
taken from the Hadith, or prophetic traditions: miniature: 19.4 x Delhi 1964, 94-95; London 1982, except for butchers, the sultan was the only male,
New
references:
"The Prophet, the blessing of God and peace be 67-68, no. 42; Ettinghausen 1985, 40-43; New York his every need, from gastronomic and musical
upon him, said, 'Whosoever builds a mosque for 1985, 134-135, no. 79 to military and administrative, attended to by
God will build him a palace the like of it in Para- beautiful women. s.c.w.
dise/ In the reign of Sultan 'Ala'ad-Dunya Abu'l- National Museum, New Delhi
Muzaffar Husain Shah al-Sultan, may God per-
petuate his rule and sovereignty. Prince Daniyal, In India, as in other parts of the Islamic world,
may his honor endure, built this congregational remarkable variants developed from more central
mosque on the tenth of Dhu'l-Hijja of A.H. 905 Islamic artistic traditions, inviting comparison
[7 July 1500]." with the changes rung on Italian Renaissance
Simon Digby, who first translated the inscrip- themes at Fontainebleau under the patronage of
tion, has identified Prince Daniyal as one of King Francis i. This copy of the thirteenth-cen-
Husain Shah's eighteen sons. The tomb of Shah tury Persian poet Sa'di's Bustan (The Orchard),
Nafa at Monghyr, dated to 1497, also bears the dating from the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
prince's name. This piece was probably taken from tury and created in central India at the royal city
a ruined building during the nineteenth century of Mandu, exemplifies such cultural echoes.
when Gaur and Pandua became a quarry for con- Although the paintings possess a unique charac-
tractors from Calcutta. s.c.w. ter, specialists can detect adaptations from earlier
Timurid or Uzbek work from Herat or Bukhara.
The great creative force behind these pictures

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