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Detail: A Jeweler's Eye plate 36

"Amir Khausrau presents a book of poetry to Ala'uddin Khalji"1.

In A Jeweler's Eye plate 36 "Amir Khausrau presents a book of poetry to Ala'uddin Khalji" from a Khamseh of Amir Khosrow Dihlavi, Lowry attributes the miniature to Balkh circa 1503 - 04. I have to balk at that attribution. In 1503-04 Balkh was in Timurid hands fighting a loseing war against the Shaybanid Uzbeks .

I do not think Balkh fell to the Uzbeks at least not for any long period of time. I think Balkh passed from Badi'Uzman Mirza back to his father Soltan Hosayn Mirza Bayqara and then in a round about fahion ended up under the authority of Babur as king of Kabul but what ever the exact pasage of authority the red taj are appropriate to either Uzbek nor Timurid especially in 1503-04. Since Herat fell in 1507 and Ismael Safavi did not invade until 1510 I can not see a date of earlier than 10 and Balkh must be called into question. The Turbans do not have the Tulip bulb shape seen in Tabriz turbans earlier than 1520. The piece shows a heavy Bihzadian influence and the Mashrabiyya is particularly well draw in the style of Bihzad.

The screen appears to me to be in the style of Bihzad and is particularly well executed. I am not suggesting that it is by Bihzad because I am just not sure but it is his style.

 

The more I study this one it becomes more obvious to me that an attribution to the hand of Shaykzadeh Mahmud. Obviously this is from his Safavid period so that places this one inbetween 1510 and 1529. As such I believe this to be from the dispersed Khamseh of Amir Khosrow Dihlavi circa 1520 of which another leaf "A Muslim Pilgrim to Mecca Meets a Brahmin on the Road" is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Rogers Fund, 1913 13. 160.4). So let me call it attributable to Shaykzadeh Mahmud under the supervision of Bihzad, Herat circa 1520.

Related work

Southwest Asia Time Line

  1. Lowery, Glenn D. and Nemazee Susan. A Jeweler's Eye. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.