Painting

The Akbarnama (Book of Akbar) was commissioned by the emperor Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign and was written by Abu'l Fazl between 1590 and 1596. It is thought to have been illustrated between c. 1592 and 1594 by at least forty-nine different artists from Akbar's Ketabkhana, or House of Books, where manuscripts were stored as well as created. After Akbar's death in 1605, the manuscript remained in the library of his son, Jahangir (r. 1605-27) and later that of Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58). The Museum purchased it in 1896 from the widow of Major General John Clarke. He had been the Commissioner in Oudh province between 1858 and 1862. The V&A manuscript is thought to be the earliest illustrated copy of the Akbarnama, preserved only in partial form, and drew upon the expertise of some of the best royal painters of the time, many of whom receive special mention by Abu'l Fazl in the third volume of the Akbarnama, the A'in-i-Akbari ("Institutes of Akbar"). The Persian inscriptions in red ink on the bottom of the paintings name the artists.