Husain Quli and Akbar

The composition of this painting was designed by the Mughal court artist Basawan and was painted by Mansur, whose mastery in depicting animals is already apparent. It is the left side of a double-page composition (with IS.2:113-1896) illustrating the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar). It depicts the Mughal general Husain Quli Khan Jahan presenting his prisoners to the emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) in 1572, after the victorious military campaign in Gujarat. The prisoners have been made to dress in animal skins to add to their humiliation and have chains around their necks.

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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 almost certainly 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 their 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.