An illustrated folio from Nizami's Haft Paykar: Bahram Gur and the Chinese princess Yaghmanaz in the sandalwood pavilion, India, probably Lahore, circa 1590-1600

This illustrated folio depicts a scene from the Haft Paykar (Seven Beauties), one of the five poems of the Khamsa of Nizami. Originally composed in the twelfth century, it narrates the tale of the legendary Sassanian king, Bahram Gur, marrying seven princesses from the seven regions of the world. Bahram Gur has domed pavilions built for each princess, painted in a different colour associated with one of the planets and a day of the week. He visits his brides one by one on successive nights when they each narrate a long story. He is depicted here with Princess Yaghmanaz, daughter of the Khaqan of Chin, whom he visits on a Sunday. Bahram Gur is offering a wine cup to the princess as two lady attendants approach from the left. The couple are seated in a sandalwood pavilion which is sometimes depicted as a yellow coloured domed palace.

The style of the painting suggests that it would have been produced in north India during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r.1556-1605), probably towards the end of his reign in Lahore where Akbar had moved this court in 1585. For a few illustrations from, and a discussion on, a small illustrated copy of the Khamsa commissioned by Akbar between 1585 and 1590, see B.W. Robinson et al., The Keir Collection: Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976, pp.238-248. A second, larger illustrated copy of the Khamsa was completed in the imperial studio in Lahore in circa 1595-96. Most of the folios are in the British Library in London (Or.12208; see J.P. Losty and Malini Roy, Mughal India – Art, Culture and Empire, London, 2012, pp.48-55).

An Akbari period illustration from Nizami’s Iskandarnama from the Khamsa, dated circa 1600, recently sold in these rooms, 24 April 2024, lot 106.