An illustration to the Dastan-i Masih (Mira'at al-Quds) of Father Jerome Xavier: Jesus Raises a Youth from the Dead, India, Mughal, circa 1602-05

gouache with gold on paper, inner gold-flecked green borders, medial borders of blue paper with gold foliate scrolls, outer borders of cream paper with bold scrolling foliate motifs in gold, reverse with a central panel of nasta'liq calligraphy containing a quatrain, inner border cartouches of smaller nasta'liq calligraphy

Ex-collection Dr Otto Jordan, Munich, 1959

P. Carvalho, 'Salim's Role as Patron of Mughal Painting at Allahabad (1600-1604): Further Miniatures from a Copy of the Mirʼat al-quds, a Life of Christ, for Emperor Akbar', in No Tapping around Philology, A Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler McIntosh Thackston Jr.'s 70th Birthday, A. Korangy and D.J. Sheffield (Eds.), Wiesbaden, 2014, pp.381-394, fig.4.

Slightly faded pigments and some flaking, especially on faces of Christ and one of the female figures and on the two tombs in the background, on the pink trousers and blue shirt of two of the male figures. As viewed.
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This is an important illustration from the Dastan-i Masih ('Story of Christ') of Father Jerome Xavier, also known as the Mir'at al-Quds ('Mirror of Holiness'), which was written for Emperor Akbar by the Jesuit missionary, who was a guest at court, and completed in 1602. Three illustrated copies of this text are known to survive, all dating from circa 1602-05: one in the Lahore Museum, one (incomplete) in the Cleveland Museum of Art, and a third with illustrations dispersed in various collection the text manuscript of which was sold at Christie's, London, 9 October 2014, lot 142. The present miniature is from the third of these manuscripts. For a thorough discussion of these manuscripts see P. Carvalho with W. Thackston, Mir'at al-quds (Mirror of Holiness): a Life of Christ for Emperor Akbar, Leiden and Boston, 2012.

The miniature has been laid down on an album page and there are no text panels from its original context, preventing a definitive identification of the scene. However, although it might seem at first glance to depict the well-known story of the Raising of Lazarus from the Gospel of St. John, 11:1-45, in fact it more probably depicts an episode about the raising of a young man, from St. Luke's Gospel, 7:12-15. The text of this episode in Xavier's Dastan-i Masih is as follows:

".... As he reached the city gate, the bier of a dead man that was being carried to the graveyard came out. It was the corpse of a young man who was the only son in his mother's house, and his mother was a widow. The widow woman was walking with the people of the city, weeping. When the Lord saw him, he felt sorry for her and said, "Weep not". And he came forth and put his hand on the bier. Those that had lifted it up stopped. Suddenly he said: "O youth, I say to you, 'Arise.' " That very instant, the dead man sat up and started speaking, and Jesus entrusted him to his mother. The people, gripped by fear, praised God..." (transl. W. Thackston, see Carvalho with Thackston, op.cit, p.184).

At least twelve other dispersed miniatures from this copy are known, including examples in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the free Library of Philadelphia, the San Diego Museum of Art, the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic art, Jerusalem, and private collections. Of these, eight were sold in these rooms, 5 July 1965, lots 56-63.