Portrait of Mian Mir and Mulla Shah

Muhammad Musa

ca. 1695–1705 · Watercolor on paper · Islamic Art

Mullah Shah was the spiritual guide of the heir apparent to the Mughal throne, Prince Dara Shikoh, and his elder sister Princess Jahanara Begum. Both were initiated by him into the Qadri Sufi order in the year 1640. An identical portrait of Mullah Shah by the same hand is in an album from Kashmir housed at the Lahore Museum. Dated 1699–1702, the name of the artist is mentioned in the album’s preface. This painting, which is inspired by an earlier portrait in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, represents the localization of an imperial Mughal style into regional schools in the late-seventeenth century Here, the three-dimensionality favored during the Jahangir and Shah Jahan periods gives way to flat blocks of color that rejects any sense of naturalistic space.

Artist

Muhammad Musa

Date

ca. 1695–1705

Medium

Watercolor on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Gift of Dr. Julius Hoffman, 1909