Bahram's Feat of Hunting Dexterity As Illustrated In

bahram’s feat of hunting dexterity 181

Bahram’s Feat of Hunting Dexterity as Illustrated in Firdausi’s Shahnama, Nizami’s Haft Paikar and Amir Khusrau’s Hasht Bihisht

Adeela Qureshi

آ �ل�خ ��س�خ ن ف� � ن خ� �� ع��لی ا ��صو�ص �� ر ی� ��ط�ه طو س ض ��سخ ن ق ن ک�ه د ر ر ی��ا �� ب�ود ه پ��ی�ر د �ه�� ا �ی ق ز ش ن ش گ ن ت �ی��ا �� س �کا ر � ��ه��ا �م�ه ا �� ب��ی� � ر ک�ه ��ی��س�� ت ن � ز ا ز � ا ��س� ��س��س�ت��ا � ب � و ر ب�� و ی و ر م ج ی Especially that most eloquent one of Tus Who was an old husbandman of the gardens of speech Estimate his deeds from the Shahnama For Rustam of Sijistan is not his equal in strength of arm.1 In these verses, the Mughal poet-laureate Faizi (d. 1595) alludes to Fir dausi’s verbal dexterity and further maintains that if he had been under the appreciative gaze of his Majesty [Akbar], “his days would not have been dark nights”.2 Moreover, citations from the Shahnama are frequent in Mughal historical texts and Abu’l-Fazl, Akbar’s court historian, writes that among the celebrated books there were hardly any that were not read out in His Majesty’s assembly hall. In addition to historical works, some of the texts frequently recited in the presence of the emperor included the Akhlaq-i Nasiri; the Divan of Anvari; the Bustan and Gulistan of Sa‘di; the collected masnavis of Nizami; the works of Amir Khusrau and Jami; the Qabusnama, and the Shahnama of Firdausi.3 Abu’l-Fazl affirms that the imperial library was divided into several sections and was organised according to the relative value of the books,

1 These verses are from Faizi’s qasida, in which he refers to the attributes of several poets including ‘Attar, Khaqani, Sa‘di and Sana’i, incorporated into Abu’l-Fazl’s Akbar- nama, 308, trans. Henry Beveridge, II, 454. 2 Ibid., 308 3 Abu’l-Fazl ‘Allami, The A’in-i-Akbari, trans. I, 110. 182 adeela qureshi and that prose books, poetical works, Hindi, Persian, Greek, Kashmiri, and Arabic, were all separately placed.4 The order of these categories led the historian Bada’uni to believe that fundamental Islamic works were of least interest to the ruler.5 An inventory compiled after the emperor Akbar’s death in 1605 reveals that the library had accumulated a vast holding of 24,000 manuscripts.6 In the 34th a’in of the A’in-i Akbari, the author specifies that owing to the emperor’s inclination for the arts, several Persian poetic and prose texts were embellished with paintings—hence a large number of paintings were collected in the royal atelier.7 Yet, literary references to the illustration of the Shahnama at the Mughal court are fairly ambiguous. Bada’uni, the author of the Muntakhab al-tawarikh, asserts that the emperor had the Shahnama, and the story of Amir Hamza transcribed in 17 volumes and then had it illuminated with large quantities of gold.8 Nonetheless, this assertion is slightly inaccurate, as we know from other historical sources that the Hamzanama was produced in 14 volumes.9 From this excerpt it is also difficult to determine whether the biographer is referring to an illustrated copy or just a richly illuminated version of Firdausi’s text. Furthermore, in the Muntakhab al-tawarikh the author also reveals that Akbar had ordered Taqi al-Din of Shushtar to paraphrase the Shahnama into prose.10 Consequently, however, in the case of the illustration of the Shahnama at the Mughal court there is a discrepancy between visual representations and historical accounts. In view of this ambiguity, the purpose of this chapter is firstly to touch upon the subject of the illustration of Firdausi’s text within the imperial studio, with reference to extant pictorial material. Secondly, the artists and writers’ longstanding practice of imitation and borrowing will be

4 Ibid., 109-10. 5 al-Bada’uni, Muntakhab al-tawarikh, II, trans. W. H. Lowe, 104. 6 Joannes de Laet, The Empire of the Great Mogol: A translation of De Laet’s description of India: Fragment of Indian history, 108-9. It was during the emperor Shah Jahan’s reign that detailed accounts of the manuscripts in the imperial library were regularly recorded. Vincent Smith observes that Sebastian Manrique, who visited the court during Shah Jahan’s reign, copied the numbers and compiled an independent list from Mughal regis- ters. Vincent Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, 424. 7 A’in-i Akbari, trans. I, 113-15. 8 Muntakhab al-tawarikh, trans. II, 329. 9 For a detailed discussion pertaining to the number of volumes involved in the pro- duction of the Hamzanama with reference to historical sources, see Pramod Chandra, Tutinama: Tales of a Parrot, 63, n. 38. Also see Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and storytelling in Mughal India, 32-38. 10 Muntakhab al-tawarikh, trans. II, 418.