Sultan 'Ali 'Adil Shah of Bijapur (r.1557-79), India, Deccan, Bijapur, circa 1570

Gouache heightened with gold on paper, upper spandrels with cartouches of partly erased nasta’liq calligraphy in black with adjacent bands of orange and gold and cornerpieces of blue and green, inner border bands of cream, gold and orange, outer borders of gold floral motifs on cream paper, inscribed in right inner border probably in Emperor Jahangir’s hand 'shabihi Ali Adilkhan Dakani'; reverse with seven lines of ta’liq calligraphy dated Rabi’ al-Thani 941 AH (October-November 1534 AD) and a circular seal impression pasted down onto a gold floral illuminated ground, wide cream borders

Sold in these rooms 7 July 1975, lot 85.

Zebrowski 1983, p.65, no.48
Elgood 2004, p.115, fig.11.9

In good overall condition, calligraphy rubbed un top and right hand corners of miniature, minor loss of blue paint to left hand edge of miniature, right sleeve of figure, remnants of old tape to leaf edges, colours and gold bright, as viewed.
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This is a very rare and highly important portrait of 'Ali 'Adil Shah of Bijapur, one of a very small number of paintings that date from the reign of this Deccani monarch. It is significant not only for its rarity and its royal subject, but also for the presence of an inscription of identification most probably in the hand of Emperor Jahangir and for the depiction of an elaborate and distinctive zoomorphic gold dagger in the Sultan’s belt.

There is relatively little recorded information about Sultan 'Ali 'Adil Shah’s patronage of painting and the arts. One record however, does imply a healthy interest in the arts of the book. Rafi al-Din Shirazi records that Ali “had a great inclination towards the study of books...., so that a coloured library had become full. Nearly sixty men, calligraphers, gilders of books, book binders, and illuminators were busy doing their work the whole day in the library.” (Zebrowski 1983, p.61, quoting Joshi 1955). Despite this, only a handful of illustrated manuscripts or individual paintings survive from Bijapur at this period. The most profusely illustrated is the Nujum al-Ulum of 1570-71 (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, see Leach 1995, vol.II, pp.819-885). Others include the Javahir al-Musikat-i Muhammadi (British Library, Or.12857, see Zebrowski 1983, no.45) and the Rasapradipa Tika (City Palace Museum, Jaipur, see Zebrowski 1983, no.46), both of circa 1570.

When he published the present work in his seminal study of Deccani painting in 1983, Zebrowski suggested that it was a slightly later version of a Bijapuri original. However, close inspection of the style and detail of the portrait, and comparison to miniatures in the three Bijapuri manuscripts mentioned above, point very firmly to this work being an original Bijapuri production of the 1570s. The facial style in particular, with the slightly grizzled beard and prominent white of the eye, as well as the rich, illuminated gold shawl, turban and sash, the slightly awkward profile stance and dominant pale blue background colour, all indicate a date during the sultan’s lifetime. A further detail is worth noting. Along the lower edge of the present painting is a faint gold band of interlace strapwork, which is an unusual feature. However, a very similar feature can be seen in the Rasapradipa Tika manuscript in Jaipur (Zebrowski 1983, no.46).

Of particular interest in the present miniature is the elaborate gilded dagger in the sultan’s waistband. It features a zoomorphic hilt with a gold makara dragon clasping a silver elephant. This is a very distinctive design and relates extremely closely to two extant gilt daggers of Deccani origin. One was formerly in the Stuart Cary Welch Collection and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (2011.236 see sale in these rooms of the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One, 6 April 2011, lot 103, and:

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/140016092?rpp=20&pg=1&ft =dagger %2c+deccan&pos=1). The other is in the David Collection, Copenhagen (36/1997, see von Folsach 2001, no.568, p.342, also http://www.davidmus.dk/assets/278/18.4-36a-1997-Dolk-med-dyregreb.jpg).

The latter is particularly close to the one depicted in the present miniature, featuring an almost identical gilt makara clasping a gilt elephant in its claws.

The presence of the inscription of identification written vertically in the right border is important. Like the previous lot it is almost certainly written by the Emperor Jahangir himself. It is known that Deccani paintings and manuscripts were popular at the Mughal court, and between 1601 and 1604, during the reign of 'Ali 'Adil Shah’s nephew Ibrahim 'Adil Shah, a large number of manuscripts and paintings from the royal Bijapur Library were sent to the Mughal Emperor as tribute (see Zebrowski 1983, pp.67-68). It is probable that the present portrait and lot 79 were part of that tribute.

The calligraphy on the reverse is interesting and important in its own right, being a document issued by the Safavid Prince Sam Mirza responding to a demand by a certain Chalabi Sultan on the allocation of land to Sufis for cultivation purposes. It is dated Rabi' al-Thani 941 AH/1534 AD and bears his seal at the end of the document, which includes a Persian couplet and his name as: 'Sam Ibn Isma'il al-Husayni'. Prince Sam Mirza (923-3 AH/1518-67 AD) was a son of the first Safavid emperor Shah Isma'il and brother of Shah Tahmasp (against whom he rebelled). He held various governorships, but he is mainly known for his book the Tuhfeh-ye Sami, a biography of poets.