- Title
- Sharza Khan Mahdawi (verso), Calligraphy (recto)
- Date Made
- circa 1680-1690
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Image (recto): 6 1/2 x 3 in. (16.51 x 7.62 cm); Image (verso): 4 3/8 x 3 5/16 in. (11.11 x 8.41 cm); Sheet: 12 3/4 x 8 1/4 in.; 32.385 x 20.955 cm
- Accession Number
- M.87.20.1
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Verso: Sharza Khan Mahdawi (birthname: Sayyid Makhdum Khan) was a Pathan from the North-West Frontier, Pakistan (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). He was the regent and a general under Sultan Sikandar Adil Shah of Bijapur (r. 1672-1686), who ascended the throne at age five and whose factious rule endured the onslaught of the Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja (r. 1674–1680) and the conquest of Bijapur in 1686 by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707). Aurangzeb, impressed by Sharza Khan’s courage, granted him the title of Rustam Khan and enlisted him as a high official. In 1690 Sharza Khan was captured during the siege of Satara Fort by the Marathas and imprisoned until 1705. After his release he was appointed Subahdar (governor) of the Berar Subah (province) in the northern Deccan in 1707 by Emperor Shah Alam Bahadur (Bahadur Shah I, r. 1707-1712; see M.74.123.5). Additional contemporaneous portraits of Sharza Khan are in the British Museum, London (1974,0617,0.11.26 and 1974,0617,0.4.48) and in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-T-00-3186-35).
Recto: Calligraphy on marbled paper consisting of couplets of a ghazal (amatory poem) by the Persian poet Hafiz (1327-1390).
May your body have no need of the proud airs of physicians
May your delicate existence remain unharmed by injury
Seek healing from the sugar-scattering speech of Hafiz
May you have no need of treatment with rose water and sugar candy.
Written by Nur ad-Din Muhammad al-Lahiji
(Translation by Simon Digby.)
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Painting, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.
