The Akbarnama (History of Akbar) was written in Persian in 1589-1598 by Abu’l Fazl (1551-1602), the court historian and biographer for Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605). The first Akbarnama, now held primarily in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and known as the V&A Akbarnama, covers the years 1560-1578 and consist of 116 illustrations. The current folio in LACMA is one of the few dispersed pages. A second Akbarnama was produced in circa 1596-1600. It is smaller in format, features numerous nim qalam (half-pen) lightly tinted drawings, and is now held principally by the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and the British Library, London. This folio depicts the conquest and burning of the Fort of Cambay, Gujarat in 1535 by Emperor Humayun (r. 1530-1540 and 1555-1556). Humayun is the commanding figure on a caparisoned horse in lower right center of the painting. He is identifiable by his feather plume turban ornament (jigha) and wears golden chain mail armor. Humayun’s army—consisting of foot soldiers, warriors on horses and elephants, and drum beaters on camels—is breaching the gateway to the fort. In the upper right center, Sultan Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate (r. 1526-1535 and 1536-1537) is escaping the assault on horseback while the distraught occupants of the fort flee in terror and attempt to extinguish the flames with water from hide bags and pots.

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