The Turkmen Prisoner-
1590 - 1600 Signed by Farrukh Beg. 1.
Farrukh Beg was a Mongol artist who was in Khorasan
until 1585 with artists who had been in the atelier of
Ibrahim Mirza in Khorasan . He spent 1585 to 1600 at the
the atelier of Akbar. Farrukh Beg was downsized in 1600
in the same design shift in which Miskin fell out of
favor. He was in the Deccan until 1608 and this shows the
style he used when he returned to the court of Jahangir
in Mughal India. While the realistic detail in Mughal
Shrub Carpets may derive from European botanicals the
rows of clumps of flowers appears to have entered the
Mughal design repertoire from the work of Farrukh Beg
upon his return from the Deccan.
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It is commonly written that
Farrukh Beg was a Persian born artist but I have
decided that that is unlikely. Farrukh is a very
talented artist and there is no other Farrukh who
was of similar stature at the court of Akbar. So
when we look at Abu'l Fazl list of the most
important artist I believe that Farrukh Beg is
the Farrukh the Qalmaq listed ninth. A Qalmaq or
Kalmuck as it is often written refers to a member
of the Oirat tribe. The Oirat were a Mongol tribe
that in 1453 assassinated the Chingizid Mongol
Khan Toqtoa-buqa and became vassals of China. An
extremely important and powerful tribal nation-
state the Oirat held the land from the upper
Yenisi to the valley of the Ili. For
a discussion of the Oirat in this period see Rene
Grousset's The Empire of the Steppes,
p. 507 - 509. Just a thought on the headgear
of the subject to the left. It is more central
Asian than Persian.
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Related work
- Okada, Amina. Indian Miniatures of the Mughal
Court. Translated by Deke Dusinberre, (New York:
Harry N. Abrahms, Inc. Publishers, 1992), f. 130,
page 120.
For Further Reading:
Thanks and best wishes,
J. Barry O'Connell Jr.
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