Painting
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
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. No independent, contemporary version of the text is known and it is now difficult to follow the story from the text written on the back of the existing folios. Work on the project probably began in about 1562 and took 15 years to complete.
Read on
The subject of this very damaged painting has been identified thus: 'In Khwaja Ashob's garden, Badi'uzzaman abandons himself to love and is overheard by the spy Kashdum'.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- IS.1515-1883
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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