Mirza Ibrahim Husain

This painting is the left side of a double-page composition from the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar). The right side is Museum no. IS.2:104-1896. The composition as a whole was designed by the Mughal court artist Tulsi Kalan, with the painting on this side done by Khem Karan. This page depicts Mirza Ibrahim Husain hunting. Ibraham Husain, like the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605), was descended from the great Central Asian ruler Timur, and his family frequently organised rebellions against Mughal rule in South Asia.

The Akbarnama was commissioned by Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written in Persian by his court historian and biographer, Abu’l Fazl, between 1590 and 1596, and the V&A’s partial copy of the manuscript is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1595. This is thought to be the earliest illustrated version of the text, and drew upon the expertise of some of the best royal artists of the time. Many of these are listed by Abu’l Fazl in the third volume of the text, the A’in-i Akbari, and some of these names appear in the V&A illustrations, written in red ink beneath the pictures, showing that this was a royal copy made for Akbar himself. After his death, the manuscript remained in the library of his son Jahangir, from whom it was inherited by Shah Jahan.

The V&A purchased the manuscript in 1896 from Frances Clarke, the widow of Major General John Clarke, who bought it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862.