'Abdullah Khan Uzbeg

This portrait depicts the Central Asian ruler Abdullah Khan Uzbeg of Bukhara with his falconer. The ascription in the lower border states that it was done by 'Nadir az-Zaman', referring to the leading court artist Abu'l Hasan. The emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) conferred upon the artist the title which means 'Wonder of the Age'. Abu'l Hasan may have adapted this likeness of a man he had never met from an earlier Iranian portrait.

Several versions of the painting are known. This one was mounted within floral borders on one side of a folio for an album, now dispersed, conventionally known as the Minto Album. The other side of the folio (IM.20a-1925) has a panel of illuminated calligraphy with very fine borders decorated with gold painting on an indigo ground.