Jehangir embraces Shah Abbas

This brilliantly executed painting from the St. Petersburg album is one of several allegorical representations of Jahangir by Abu'l Hasan, one of the finest painters of the imperial atelier. The radiant and powerful Jahangir is depicted comforting his meek, submissive cousin, Shah Abbas of Iran. This has nothing to do with any historical fact and is pure wish-fulfillment and imagination on Jahangir's part. The rulers were intense rivals, the focus of their mutual antagonism centering on Kandahar, in Afghanistan, a territory and fortress under Mughal control. The story is that Safavids were traditional allies of the Mughals and it was Shah Abbas’s grandfather, Shah Tahmasp, who helped Humayun seize back the throne of Hindustan. All he asked for in return was Kandahar. The Safavad throne of Persia eventually fell into the chaos of succession and Akbar used this as an opportunity to take back Kandahar from the Persians. Abbas continued to maintain cordial relations with the Mughals even though he pursued the return of Kandahar. In 1620, there was a diplomatic incident in the Mughal court where the Persian diplomat refused to bow down to the Jehangir and that led to wat between the two kingdoms. By the year 1622, there was an additional distraction for the Mughals in the form of a Civil strife because of rebel kingdoms and resistance from the deccan. Abbas realised that it was an opportune moment, launched a lightening raid and took back Kandahar. After the conquest, Shah Abbas was very cordial and conciliatory to Jehangir and claimed that he had only taken back what was righty his and declared that he had no further territorial ambitions. While Jehangir was not pleased at all, he was never able to recapture the province. This painting was made in the run up to Jehangir’s loss of Kandahar. It represents Jahangir's imaginary entertainment of the Persian ruler Shah Abbas. The painting was created by Abu al-Hasan who was the son of Aqa Reza (a leading artist of the Persian Safavid Court who later took employment under Jehangir) of Herat in Safavid Iran, a city with an artistic tradition. When Abu al-Hasan began producing art a young age, the emperor, Jahangir, greatly appreciated his skills of the boy. In 1599, Abu al-Hasan moved with Jahangir to his newly founded court in Allahabad. The emperor considered Abu al-Hasan to be particularly special to him and under his care. This is because although Abu al-Hasan’s artwork was similar in many ways to his father’s with Dutch and English influence, it was considered to be of a higher quality similar to that of older masters in the field. Jahangir said of Abu al-Hasan that he had no equal and for the work done on the frontispiece for his memoires, the emperor bestowed the title Nadir-uz-Saman ("Wonder of the Age") on Abu al-Hasan in 1618. Abu al-Hasan's main task was the documentation of events at the imperial court, which resulted in many portraits being completed. Portraits were the hallmark of Jahangir’s rule. Not many of Abu al-Hasan's paintings survived and the few that did are hidden in the coffers of museums and collectors, but those that identify him as the artist show that he also worked on a range of subjects, including some everyday scenes and political paintings that showed the emperor and Mughal empire in a positive and powerful light. While Abu al-Hasan’s career aligned with developments in the style of Mughal paintings, when Jahangir's reign came to an end, and Shah Jahan began his rule, Abu al-Hasan influence and works rescinded into oblivion. Perhaps his only work in India is in a private collection known as the Goenka collection where, inspired from a European work, Abu’l Hasan painted Neptue, the god of water. If you want to know more about Mr Hasan as a young man, please see his deeply moving portrait which as survived. It is made my Daulat and is part of the famous Gulshan Album of paintings, now in Iran. How it got there is another story. Unfortunately in 1739 Nadir Shah of Iran attacked the Mughal capital at Delhi, seizing many of the best Mughal paintings and manuscript illustrations. These were mounted into albums prepared and decorated by the leading Persian artists of the day and eventually formed the compilation known today as the St. Petersburg album (Persians called it the Gulshan Album). At the risk of digressing but getting into the sphere of the provenance of the painting, Persia had a constitutional revolution and deposition of sorts in in the early 1900s. This was also coupled with a discovery of petroleum by the British in Khuzestan which spawned an intense British interest in Persia by the Empire and its companies. Russia and UK both contested for control of the regions in what became known as the Great Game and Persia was eventually divided into spheres of Russian or British influence regardless of her national sovereignty. It was during this period in 1910 that the Mughal Muraqqa album found its way in St Petersburg and parts of it in the UK. The provenance of the west describes the album as the St Peteresburg Album. This painting is a part of that album which contains some of the best works of Hindustan.

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