Islam an Illustrated Journey extract

A watercolour painting made in Mughal India in ca. 1615–1618
depicting a bejewelled and haloed Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) favouring the
Sufi Shaykh Husayn with a book. The painting is an allegory. Jahangir,
who adopted the name meant ‘Seizer of the World’ and honorific title of
Nur al-Din (‘Light of Faith’), is shown to prefer the poor and pious
shaykh to the kings depicted at a distance from the ruler and
represented by the Ottoman sultan and King James i of England
(r. 1603–1625). The painting’s artist Bichitr (active ca. 1610–1660), a Hindu,
has also included himself in the painting with a self-portrait bowing
before the king on the lower left. The painting also has a number of
European styled cherubs, two of whom write in Persian at the base
of the hourglass pedestal of Jahangir’s throne, ‘O Shah, May the Span
of Your Life be a Thousand Years’. The painting’s frame is densely
decorated with colourful flowers. Jahangir was known for his
patronage of botanical paintings and drawings.
seeking the eternal
Jahangir’s successor, Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) built the Taj Mahal
in Agra as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal
(d. 1631). Built on the banks of the Yamuna, the Taj Mahal is a complex
of buildings within a garden, at the north end of which is the main
mausoleum built of brick faced with white marble decorated with
precious and semi-precious stones including lapis lazuli, sapphire,
cornelian, jasper, chrysolite and heliotrope.