BY JAGJIVAN KALAN, MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1595-1600

The Zafarnama of Yazdi, is the history or ‘Book of Victory’ of Timur and Khalil Sultan. Commissioned by Ibrahim Sultan ibn Shahrukh, grandson of Timur and governor of Shiraz, the text, in ornate prose, was completed by Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi in AH 828⁄1424-5 AD. By 1595 a copy, lavishly illustrated by the master painter Bihzad, had been acquired by the Mughal court, with the Mughal emperors proud to emphasise their lineage to Timur.
The now dispersed manuscript from which our miniature comes, was ordered for the library of the Emperor Akbar, probably between 1595 and 1600. The illustrations were done in the royal atelier by the foremost artists of the period and display the refined style characteristic of Akbar’s later years. With the emperor famously having been illiterate yet a bibliophile, we must assume that illustrations took on increased importance. Until the emergence of this manuscript, the only known Mughal copy of the text was one completed in July 1600 – illustrated in the sub-imperial Mughal style, probably for Mirza ‘Aziz Koka, governor of Ahmadabad and foster brother to Akbar. John Seyller argues that because patrons of this class typically emulated imperial taste in books and painting, this date strongly suggests our manuscript was produced earlier – a supposition corroborated by the roll of painters involved in its illustration (John Seyller and Konrad Seitz, Mughal and Deccani Paintings: the Eva and Konrad Seitz Collection of Indian Miniatures, Zurich, 2010, p.42).
This folio shows the army of ‘Umar Shaykh (1354-94), the son of Timur and brother of Shahrukh, routing the army of Qamar al-Din in 1395. Qamar al-Din was a chief of a rival Central Asian clan and a major rival of Timur, the two engaging in several campaigns. Although he managed to escape this battle with his life, he would disappear from record around the year 1390, giving Timur control of much of the region. In the painting we see the Timurid army sweeping into the enemy encampment, despite the relative safety afforded by the rocky outcrop seen behind. Umar Shaykh’s cavalry ride marvellously caparisoned horses, bedecked in luxuriously patterned saddlecloths evocative of contemporaneous Safavid painting. At the central focus of the illustration is one of Qamar al-Din’s fallen soldiers, his head now a few meters away from his body, still with an expression of terror and shock. The high viewpoint which divides the scene into just foreground and background affords the artist the chance to simultaneously present to us the decapitation in the heat of the battle as well as the panic raging in the enemy encampment.
It should perhaps come as no surprise that Jagjivan Kalan, the artist here, had previously worked on other historical manuscripts like the Razmnama in the 1580s and Chingiznama dated 1596. A number of collaborative works by the artist are known from the Akbar period, for example with Tulsi the Elder on a folio for the Akbarnama in the Victoria & Albert Museum (IS.2:47-1896), but this would appear to be the first known independent work of Jagjivan Kalan.
A number of miniatures from this copy of the Zafarnama are known. Two were offered at Sotheby's, 3 May 2001, lots 71 and 72 and another two 21 October 2001, lots 64 and 65. Five other folios sold in these Rooms, 26 April 2012, lots 3, 4 and 5; 04 October 2012, lots 31 and 32; and most recently 28 October 2021, lot 37. Two are in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University (2005.027) and in the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California (2009.17). Another is in the Eva and Konrad Seitz Collection (published Seyller and Seitz, op. cit., no.6, pp.42-44).