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Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings
- Artist
- Bichitr (active c. 1615–1650)
- Date
- c. 1615–1618
- Dimensions
- 25.3 x 18.1 cm
- Medium
- Opaque watercolour, gold and ink on paper
- Location
- Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., United States
This Mughal miniature shows the emperor Jahangir seated on an hourglass throne, his head surrounded by a dazzling halo of sun and moon. He hands a book to a white-bearded Sufi holy man, while below him wait an Ottoman sultan, King James I of England and the painter himself.
A closer look
The picture is a piece of political and spiritual flattery: Jahangir, ruler of the Mughal Empire in India, shows that he values the wisdom of a Sufi saint above the friendship of the world's kings. The hourglass throne, its sand running out, is inscribed with wishes that the emperor live a thousand years. Two little cherubs, borrowed from European art, write on its base. King James is copied from an English portrait brought to the Mughal court by the ambassador Sir Thomas Roe. Bichitr, the artist, includes himself at the lower left, holding a painting as an offering.