- Title
- Mirza Rustam Safavi (1569-1641)
- Date Made
- circa 1635
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 6 9/16 x 3 3/4 in. (16.67 x 7.62 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.78.9.14
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
The inscription in the golden cartouche identifies the subject as Mirza Rustam Safavi (1569-1641) of Qandahar, Afghanistan. He was the son of Sultan Husain Mirza (d. 1576) of the Safavid royal family of Iran. He went to India in 1592 and was soon appointed Governor of Lahore by Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605). He went on to serve under Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658). Mirza Rustam Safavi had several matrimonial alliances with the Mughal dynasty. He was the uncle of the first wife of Shah Jahan; had a daughter married to Prince Parvez (1589-1626), the second son of Jahangir; another daughter married to Dara Shikoh (1615-1659), the eldest son of Shah Jahan; and was the grandfather of the Mughal Empress, Dilras Banu Begum (circa 1622-1657), who in 1637 married Prince Aurangzeb (as emperor, r. 1658-1707).
Mirza Rustam Safavi is depicted in a conventional posture of leaning against a long walking stick. His face is sensitively portrayed in three-quarter view while he gazes into the distance. His orange-and-white turban is tied in a distinctive manner. He wears a long green coat (jama), a brocaded waist sash, pants with orange-and-black stripes, and red shoes with gold embroidered medallions. A folded white shawl with a gold border crisscrosses his torso. Tucked into his sash is a dagger featuring an ivory and gold grip with a cloven-pommel and flaring ears, which is a style of dagger popular in Safavid Iran and early in Jahangir’s reign.
- Selected Bibliography
- Thackston, Wheeler M. The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Pal, Pratapaditya, Janice Leoshko, Joseph M. Dye, III, Stephen Markel. Romance of the Taj Mahal. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989.
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Painting, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.
- Rosenfield, John. The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
