PORTRAIT OF MIRZA-MUHAMMAD, SON OF QABAHAT, BY ABD AL-AZIZ, PERSIA, TABRIZ, CIRCA 1540-45

Formerly in the Aga-Oglu Collection.
Mehment Aga-Oglu (1896-1949) was a major figure in the field of Islamic Art History in the first half of the 20th century. Educated in Moscow, Istanbul, Berlin, Jena and Vienna, he held a variety of teaching and curatorial posts in Istanbul before moving to the United States, where he was Curator of Near Eastern Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, Consultant at the Textile Museum, Washington D.C., and founder and first editor of the journal Ars Islamica from 1934.

This is an important portrait of Mirza Muhammad, son of the royal physician at the court of Shah Tahmasp. It is signed by the artist Abd al-Aziz, who was a leading painter of the royal atelier at Tabriz in the second quarter of the 16th century and contributed significantly to the Shahnameh manuscript made for Shah Tahmasp.

The present painting shows a young, bearded man holding a letter, and the inscription on the letter contains the name of both the sitter and the artist. The inscription reads:

"Oh Sovereign of All realms! The artful work of the wonder of the age Khwajeh 'Abd al-'Aziz, a likeness of the boy Mirza-Muhammad Qabahat".

The inscription in the panel above the miniature repeats this phrase verbatim.

The artist and biographer Sadiqi Beg states that Abd al-Aziz was a pupil of Behzad, but Welch suggests that Sultan Muhammad was his master (Welch 1979, p.16). The same biographer also recounts a memorably bizarre tale about Abd al-Aziz and Mirza Muhammad. Around the year 1530 Abd al-Aziz and another court artist, Ali Asghar, absconded with the young Mirza Muhammad Qabahat, who was a favourite page-boy of Shah Tahmasp. In order to facilitate their escape they stole a royal seal and forged travel documents to enable them to reach India. They were captured and brought back to Tabriz, where Mirza Muhammad was pardoned, but Abd al-Aziz and Ali Asghar had their ears and noses cut off in punishment. Abd al-Aziz apparently made himself an articifical nose, which improved his looks. Both artists were allowed to continue their careers. (See Dickson and Welch 1981, vol.I, p.224; Welch 1979, p.188; Simpson 1997, p.309).

Cary Welch's handwritten notes on the backboard of the frame recount an interesting coincidence:
"This fascinating picture was delivered .... entirely unexpectedly, at the moment when Martin Dickson was telling me about the misadventure of Abd al-Aziz, Mirza Muhammad and Shah Tahmasp - an astonishing, God-given coincidence."
"Admire not only the portrait but the contemporary border, probably also by Abd al-Aziz"