A Portrait of Zamana Beg (called) Mahabat Khan, Mughal period, circa early 18th century

Mahabat Khan (d. 1634) was born Zamana-Beg Kabuli in Kabul (in presentday Afghanista n) and was a prominent general and statesman who received the honorific title Mahabat Khan during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. He became the subahdar (Governor) of Malwa (1611-23) and Bengal (1625 -26) and was perhaps best known for his unsuccessful coup against Jahangir in 1626. He was later awarded the title Khan-i-Khanan from Emperor Shah Jahan.

The present very finely executed portrait is a close copy of another, earlier painting "Portrait of Zamana Beg, Mahabat Khan" in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number 55.121.10.3) from the Shah Jahan Album dated 1610 by the artist Manohar (1582-1624). In another painting - a group portrait - Zamana Beg can also be seen accepting an appointment in the presence of an enthroned Shah Jahan and a gathering of ministers and courtiers - a detached folio of the Imperial Mughal Padishahnama circa 1629 by Abid in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection at the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art in Washington D.C. (accession number: S1986.406).