Mrz Muammad aydar Dughlt on the Hart School of Painters Author(s): T. W.

Arnold Reviewed work(s): Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1930), pp. 671-674 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/607013 . Accessed: 11/11/2011 14:49
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BULLETIN
OF THE

OF SCHOOL ORIENTALSTUDIES LONDONINSTITUTION

PAPERS. CONTRIBUTED
ON THE

MIRZA MUHAMMAD HAYDAR DUGHLAT HARAT SCHOOL OF PAINTERS By T. W. ARNOLD

M USLIM historians have put on record such scanty and insufficient materials for the biographies of painters that any fresh information deserves attention, especially if it is provided by a contemporary of the painters in question. The following extracts from the Ta'rikh-iRashidi have hitherto escaped notice; the Persian text of this interesting work has not yet been printed, and these passages were not included in the abbreviated translation which Sir E. Denison Ross published in 1895. But he recently drew my attention to them, and kindly placed at my disposal two MSS. of the text in his private possession, and, further, revised and amended my translation; to his erudition are due whatever merits it may possess. In addition to the two MSS. above mentioned, I consulted one in the India Office Library (No 39 (Ethe 2448), foll. 153-4b) and two in the British Museum (Or. 157, foll. 152b-4; and Add. 24,090, foll. 133-4b). There are variants in the text provided by these five MSS., but they are of little importance, as they appear generally to arise from carelessness on the part of one or other of the scribes. The author, Mirzd Muhammad HIaydar, is too well-known a personage to require any notice here; suffice it to say that he lived
VOL. V. PART IV. 44

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T. W. ARNOLD-

between A.D. 1500 and 1551, and was thus contemporary with most of the artists to whom he refers. His interest in them was probably due to the fact (mentioned by his cousin, Babur) that Mirza HIaydar himself added the cultivation of the art of painting to his other accomplishments, having been (as he himself tells us) a pupil of Mawlana Darvish Muhammad. " Painters.-Shah Muzaffar is the son of Master Mansfir. In the reign of Sultan Abfi Sa'Id he (Mansfir)was unsurpassed, he is a master in his art; he has a delicate, fine brush, and no other painter's brush has ever attained the same delicacy, with the exception of that of Shah Muzaffar; but he was somewhat more refreshing (as an artist) in that his strokes were firmer. But Shah Muzaffarsurpassed him in many respects, for he had an exceedingly delicate brush, so clean and refined and matured that the eyes of all beholders were amazed. He died at the age of twenty-four. During his lifetime he completed eight group pictures (i.e. large compositions), and some persons possess examples of his pen and ink drawings. The masters of this art hold him in very high esteem. Bihzad. As a painter he is a master, though he does not come up to Shah Muzaffar in delicacy of touch, but his brush is firmer and he surpasses him in his preliminary sketches and his grouping of his figures. To an earlier period belongs Khwajah 'Abd al-Hayy who lived under the Khaqans of the house of Hfilagfi, who were rulers of 'Iraq. It is the belief of these artists that he was a saint, and in the end he repented, and wherever he could lay his hands upon any of his own works he washed them off or burnt them; consequently exceedingly few of his works can now be found. He is unrivalled in purity and delicacy and firmness of brush, indeed in all the characteristics of the art of painting. After Khwajah 'Abd al-Hayy come Shah Muzaffar and Bihzad, and after these up to our own times there has been none like them. Both of the two latter enjoyed the patronage of Mir 'All Shir.1 Qasim 'Ali, portrait painter. He is a pupil of Bihzad and his works come near to those of Bihzad, but in this style (of painting) any expert connoisseur can recognize that the works of Qasim 'Ali are rougherthan those of Bihzad and that his original designs are more unsymmetrical. Maqsild is a second Qasim 'Ali, (also) a pupil of Bihzad; his brush is in no way inferior to that of Qasim 'All. But his original designs and finish are crude compared with those of Qasim 'All.
1

The talented friend and minister of Sultiln Husayn Mirzi (ob. 1501).

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673

Mawl-na Mirak Naqqash. He is one of the marvels of the age, and he is the master of Bihzad. His original designs are more mature than those of Bihzad, though his finish is not equal to that of Bihzad. But he had to do all his work when he was not actually in attendance on the Mirza,1either on journeys or at the court, either in the house or in the open air; consequently he was never able to settle down to work in his studio and stick to his easel (lit. paper). It is somewhat extraordinary that in spite of his occupations he used to engage in various kinds of athletics that are the very reverse of painting and drawing, and used to practise many violent exercises, such as wrestling and boxing, whereby he gained a reputation. It is strange indeed that he should have combined the painting of pictures with activities of this kind. Another master is Baba Haji. He had an expert brush in painting, but his original designs were unsymmetrical. Throughout the whole of Khurasan he is inimitable in sketching designs and drawing in charcoal. There is a story that in a certain gathering, in order to show off (his skill) he drew fifty circles and a half, which were exactly like those made by a pair of compasses, and there was not a hair's difference, big or small, between them. and Master Shaykh Ahmad, brother of Baba HI.Jji, Mawlana Junayd and Master Husam al-Din the poignard-maker, and Mawlana Wallall these are skilled masters and no one of them is superior to the other. Mulla Yiisuf is a pupil of Bihzad ; he can work so rapidly that in ten days he can finish what it would take those masters one month to do ; but he has not such an agreeable brush as those masters ; his gilding is superiorto his painting. Mawlana Darvish Muhammad, who is my master, is a pupil of Shah Muzaffar; he has no equal in fineness of brush, nay he has even surpassed Shah Muzaffar. But he is not so symmetrical or expert or refined, and he is apt to make very crude strokes. He once drew a picture of a man on horseback, lifting up a lion on the point of a javelin ; the whole of it only covers the surface of a single grain of rice. There are a great many (other) painters, and so many of them are masters and proficient in their art that it is impossible to give an account of them all. The Workersin Gold.-Yari is a master in gilding, but his writing is better than his gilding. He is a pupil of Mulla Wall, but he has out1

I.e. Sultn

IIusayn Mirzi, who ruled in IHarit from 1470 to 1506.

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stripped his master. Mawlana Mahmfid was a better gilder than Yari, and he had planned an exceedingly delicate preface (of a manuscript) for Mirza Sultan IHusayn, but it remained incomplete, though he had worked upon it for seven years. In that period there were many workers in gold, but the only masters among them were the two that have already been mentioned."