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Collections

Haidar Beg, Roshan Qalam (Haidar Beg of the Golden Pen)
General Ghazi al-Din Bahadur Khan Firuz Jang I (recto), Calligraphy (verso)circa 1675 (recto), 17th century (verso)

Not on view
Mughal miniature painting, full-length portrait of an older bearded man in profile, wearing a floral ivory robe, orange turban, and carrying a dark shield and sword
Calligraphy album page with Persian script in nasta'liq style arranged in diagonal bands across a gold ground decorated with small polychrome flowers and cloud forms, framed by a blue-ruled border and teal-green mat with gold-stamped floral outer border.
Artist or Maker
Haidar Beg, Roshan Qalam (Haidar Beg of the Golden Pen)
Title
General Ghazi al-Din Bahadur Khan Firuz Jang I (recto), Calligraphy (verso)
Place Made
India, Telangana, Golconda or Hyderabad
Date Made
circa 1675 (recto), 17th century (verso)
Medium
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; border: embossed with gold
Dimensions
Image (recto): 9 7/8 x 6 1/4 in. (25.08 x 15.88 cm); Image (verso): 4 3/8 x 2 in. (11.11 x 5.08 cm); Sheet: 17 3/8 x 11 1/4 in. (44.13 x 28.58 cm)
Credit Line
From the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase
Accession Number
M.81.8.9
Classification
Drawings
Collecting Area
South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes

Recto: General Ghazi al-Din Bahadur Khan Firuz Jang I (birthname: Mir Shahab al-Din Siddiqi, circa 1649-1710) was born in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. He arrived at the court of Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) from Iran in 1669. He served in the siege of the Bijapur Fort in 1685 and the siege of the Golconda Fort and capture of Hyderabad in 1687. He was made Subahdar (governor) of the Gujarat Subah (province) during the reign of Emperor Shah Alam Bahadur (Bahadur Shah I, r. 1707-1712; see M.74.123.5). He died in Ahmedabad in 1710. His son was the first Nizam of Hyderabad, Asaf Jah I (1724-1748).

The general is depicted in profile against a Mughal-style pale green background with a groundline of flowering plants. He wears a turban, white coat (jama) with roses and rose-colored pleats, orange-and-gold striped trousers, yellow-and-green waist sash with irises, and brocade shoes. He has a punch dagger (katar) and a sword worn on his far side and a shield suspended from a shoulder strap. He carries a handkerchief in his right hand. The painting is mounted with 18th-century borders embossed in gold with figural and landscape motifs. For additional folios from the same album, see M.76.2.35 and two pages in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.493 and 1990.494). A conventionalized portrait attributed to circa 1686 is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-T-00-3186-2).

Verso: Panel of calligraphy by Haidar Beg, Roshan Qalam (Haidar Beg of the Golden Pen).

Selected Bibliography
  • 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.