- Title
- Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur (r. 1580-1627)
- Date Made
- circa 1675
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 8 1/8 x 4 5/8 in. (20.64 x 11.75 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.83.105.2
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur (r. 1580-1627) was born in circa 1570. He was the sixth ruler of Bijapur in the Adil Shahi dynasty (1490-1686). Ibrahim Adil Shah II ascended the throne at age nine and at age twenty assumed full control of the kingdom from the intervening regents. Under his reign the dynasty achieved its greatest geographical extent and highest cultural accomplishments. Ibrahim Adil Shah II was a skilled painter and calligrapher. He was also an astute connoisseur and patron of music and himself played the tambura (a fretless lute). He was also a great patron of literature and an accomplished poet, having composed the Kitab-i Nauras (Book of Nine Rasas) in Deccani Urdu. In it, Ibrahim Adil Shah II gives himself the title Jagatguru (World Teacher). Deeply spiritual, he was a devotee of Banda Nawaz Gesudaraz (1321-1422), the Sufi saint of the Chishti Order who had resided at Gulbarga, Karnataka.
Ibrahim Adil Shah II wears the conical turban favored in Bijapur. It is wrapped in gold brocade and is crowned by a bejeweled turban ornament. He wears a triple strand of pearls in place of his more customary necklace of rudraksha (eye of Rudra/Shiva) beads (elaeo carpus seeds). His transparent outer garment (jama) is trimmed with gold brocade and has gold brocade pleats under the arms. He wears pink trousers, gold brocade shoes, and a gold brocade waist sash with a flowing end. In his right hand, he holds a long staff and a nosegay symbolic of cultural refinement.
- Selected Bibliography
Pal, Pratapaditya, Thomas W. Lentz, Sheila R. Canby, Edwin Binney, 3rd, Walter B. Denny, and Stephen Markel. "Arts from Islamic Cultures: Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 17, no. 6 (November/December 1987): 73-130.
