BAHRAM GUR AND SHANGUL SHAH EMBRACING RARE PAGE... Lot 288

BAHRAM GUR AND SHANGUL SHAH EMBRACING RARE PAGE FROM A MOGHUL SHAH-NAMEH OF THE AKBAR PERIOD, SIGNED MUHAMMAD PANDIT Gouache and gold on paper, manuscript page from a Shâhnâmeh by Ferdowsi, text in 4 columns of 25 lines per page in black ink in nasta'liq script and title in red indicating: "Shangul's arrival in the lands of Iran". The painting depicts the two rulers embracing, and is inscribed in the text. Signed below the margin "Muhammad Pandit". Number "32" inscribed in Arabic in the right-hand margin. (Page folded in frame, small paper tears in frame, minor wear and stains). Framed under glass. Mughal India, circa 1600. A SIGNED MUHAMMAD PANDIT MOGHUL, INDIAN MINIATURE PAINTING FROM THE SHAHNAMEH, CIRCA 1600. DIM. (PAGE) 37 X 24 CM (14 9/16 X 9 7/16 IN.) - DIM. (WRITTEN SURFACE) 24 X 13 CM (9 7/16 X 5 1/8 IN.) DIM. (PAINT) 10,4 x 13 CM (4 1/16 X 5 1/8 IN.) NOTE The painting is signed in the margin "Muhammad Pandit". This artist was one of the forty who worked on the Baburnama, the famous album commissioned by Emperor Akbar (r.1556-1605) to celebrate his grandfather, Emperor Babur (r. 1526-1530), illustrated circa 1598-1600 and preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi (inv. no. 50.326) (Som Prakash Verma, The illustrated Baburnama, Routledge Editions, 2016, p. 8, NOTE 2). In this manuscript, Muhammad Pandit illustrated the meeting of Babur and his grandmother Aisan-daulat Begam (ibid., p. 59, pl. 10, fol. 24a). He was a painter from Kashmir, like several other artists during Akbar's reign, recognizable by the suffix Kashmiri attached to their names (ibid., NOTE 6, p. 269). Although there are several sub-imperial Mughal manuscripts from the first half of the 17th century, including a few Shah-name examples, it is extremely rare to find Mughal Shah-name manuscripts illustrated by imperial artists during Akbar's reign. The scene of the meeting between the rulers Shangul and Bahram Gur is also illustrated in other Shahnama, for example in a copy dated 1548 and preserved in the Chester Beatty Library (Per 214, vol. 1, page 289v). The painting is numbered "32" in the margin, which corresponds to its position within the original manuscript.