1930 arnolad haydar dughlat herat

8/2/2019 1930 Arnolad Haydar Dughlat Herat

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Mrz Muammad aydar Dughlt on the Hart School of Painters

Author(s): T. W. ArnoldReviewed work(s):Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1930),pp. 671-674Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/607013 .

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BULLETINOF THE

SCHOOLOF ORIENTALSTUDIESLONDONINSTITUTION

PAPERS. CONTRIBUTEDMIRZA MUHAMMAD HAYDAR DUGHLAT ON THE

HARAT SCHOOL OF PAINTERSBy T. W. ARNOLD

M USLIM historians have put on recordsuch scanty and insufficientmaterials for the biographiesof painters that any fresh informa-tion deserves attention, especially if it is provided by a contemporaryof the painters in question. The following extracts from the Ta'rikh-i-Rashidi have hitherto escaped notice; the Persian text of thisinteresting work has not yet been printed, and these passages were notincluded in the abbreviated translation which Sir E. Denison Rosspublished in 1895. But he recently drew my attention to them, andkindly placed at my disposal two MSS. of the text in his privatepossession, and, further, revised and amended my translation; tohis erudition are due whatever merits it may possess.In addition to the two MSS.above mentioned, I consultedone in theIndia OfficeLibrary (No 39 (Ethe 2448), foll. 153-4b) and two in theBritish Museum (Or. 157, foll. 152b-4; and Add. 24,090, foll.133-4b). There are variants in the text provided by these fiveMSS., but they are of little importance, as they appear generally toarise from carelessness on the part of one or other of the scribes.The author, Mirzd Muhammad HIaydar, is too well-known apersonage to require any notice here; suffice it to say that he lived

VOL. V. PART IV. 44


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672 T. W. ARNOLD-between A.D. 1500 and 1551, and was thus contemporarywith most ofthe artists to whom he refers. His interest in them was probably dueto the fact (mentioned by his cousin, Babur) that Mirza HIaydarhimself added the cultivation of the art of painting to his otheraccomplishments, having been (as he himself tells us) a pupil ofMawlanaDarvish Muhammad." Painters.-Shah Muzaffar is the son of Master Mansfir. In thereign of Sultan Abfi Sa'Id he (Mansfir)was unsurpassed, he is a masterin his art; he has a delicate, fine brush, and no other painter's brushhas ever attained the same delicacy, with the exception of that ofShah Muzaffar; but he was somewhat more refreshing (as an artist)in that his strokes were firmer. But Shah Muzaffarsurpassed him inmany respects, for he had an exceedingly delicate brush, so clean andrefined and matured that the eyes of all beholders were amazed. Hedied at the age of twenty-four. During his lifetime he completed eightgroup pictures (i.e. large compositions), and some persons possessexamples of his pen and ink drawings. The masters of this art holdhim in very high esteem.

Bihzad. As a painterhe is a master, though he does not come up toShah Muzaffarin delicacy of touch, but his brush is firmer and hesurpasseshim in his preliminarysketches and his groupingof his figures.To an earlierperiodbelongs Khwajah 'Abdal-Hayy who lived underthe Khaqans of the house of Hfilagfi, who were rulers of 'Iraq. It isthe belief of these artists that he was a saint, andin the end he repented,and wherever he could lay his hands upon any of his own works hewashed them off or burnt them; consequently exceedingly few of hisworks can now be found. He is unrivalled in purity and delicacy andfirmnessof brush, indeed in all the characteristicsof the art of painting.After Khwajah 'Abd al-Hayy come Shah Muzaffarand Bihzad, andafter these up to our own times there has been none like them. Bothof the two latter enjoyed the patronage of Mir 'All Shir.1

Qasim 'Ali, portrait painter. He is a pupil of Bihzad and his workscome near to those of Bihzad, but in this style (of painting) any expertconnoisseurcan recognizethat the works of Qasim 'Aliarerougherthanthose of Bihzad and that his original designs are more unsymmetrical.Maqsild is a second Qasim 'Ali, (also) a pupil of Bihzad; his brushis in no way inferiorto that of Qasim 'All. But his original designs andfinish are crude compared with those of Qasim 'All.

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


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ON THE HARAT SCHOOL OF PAINTERS 673Mawl-na MirakNaqqash. He is one of the marvels of the age, andhe is the master of Bihzad. His original designs are more mature thanthose of Bihzad, though his finish is not equal to that of Bihzad. Buthe 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 theopen air; consequently he was never able to settle down to work inhis studio and stick to his easel (lit. paper). It is somewhat extra-ordinary that in spite of his occupations he used to engage in variouskinds of athletics that are the very reverse of painting and drawing,and used to practise many violent exercises, such as wrestling andboxing, whereby he gained a reputation. It is strange indeed thathe should have combined the painting of pictures with activities ofthis kind.

Another master is Baba Haji. He had an expert brush in painting,but his original designs were unsymmetrical. Throughout the wholeof Khurasan he is inimitable in sketching designs and drawing incharcoal. Thereis a story that in a certain gathering, in orderto showoff (his skill) he drew fifty circles and a half, which were exactly likethose made by a pairof compasses, and there was not a hair'sdifference,big or small, between them.MasterShaykhAhmad, brotherof Baba HI.Jji,nd MawlanaJunaydand Master Husam al-Din the poignard-maker, and Mawlana Wall-all these areskilled masters and no one of them is superiorto the other.Mulla Yiisuf is a pupil of Bihzad ; he can work so rapidly that inten days he can finish what it would take those masters one monthto do ; but he has not such an agreeable brush as those masters ; hisgilding is superiorto his painting.Mawlana Darvish Muhammad, who is my master, is a pupil ofShah Muzaffar; he has no equal in fineness of brush, nay he has evensurpassed Shah Muzaffar. But he is not so symmetrical or expert orrefined, and he is apt to make very crude strokes. He once drew apictureof 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 aremasters and proficient in their art that it is impossible to give anaccount of them all.The Workersn Gold.-Yari is a master in gilding, but his writing isbetter than his gilding. He is a pupil of Mulla Wall, but he has out-

1 I.e. Sultn IIusayn Mirzi, who ruled in IHarit from 1470 to 1506.


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674 ON THE HARAT SCHOOL OF PAINTERSstripped his master. MawlanaMahmfidwas 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 hadworked upon it for seven years.

In that periodthere weremany workers in gold, but the only mastersamong them were the two that have already been mentioned."

1930 arnolad haydar dughlat herat

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