Portraits of Islamic saints and devotees with Persian inscriptions - 1796
A typed note pasted to the inside of the album cover reads:
"This album was made up for Tipu, ruler of Mysore from 1783-99, according to the inscription. Dated, Month of Akmadi = 1st month, 1225 = A.D. 1796.
This is ...
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Page from a large Qur’an in kufic script
Asia, late 8th century - early 9th century AD
Although severely damaged, this folio gives us a glimpse of the unique quality of the codex that once comprised it. The style in which it is written, characterized by a marked horizontal stretch in some let...
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Calligraphic dragon head
Golconda, 2nd half of the 17th century - 1st half of the 18th century
This brass openwork dragon or makara head was a finial piece from a religious standard (alam) displayed at a Shi’a Muslim shrine. It is composed of Arabic script: “Help is from God and Victory near”...
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Muslim festival at a tomb of a saint, Murshidabad, ca. 1795 - ca. 1805
Murshidabad, India
Painting; gouache.
This is one of a group of nine paintings. They depict a durbar (public reception) at the Murshidabad court, and various Hindu and Muslim festivals and religious scenes. A Murshidabad ...
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A HAJJ MAP OF MECCA AND MEDINA, PROBABLY SOUTH INDIA, DATED 1263 AH/1846 AD
Ink and gouache on stout paper, the rectangular page separated into various differnet panels depicting the sites of Mecca and Medina, the location names inscribed in Naskh script in black ink, the panels bordered with si...
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The north is at the bottom, with the west to the right surrounded by unknown seas. The Indian Ocean, with the Red Sea, is on the left, with China, India and Iran in boxes to the right. The other sea shown is the Mediterranean next to which is a black squa...
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Photograph of a Muharram procession in Baroda (Vadodara) from the 'Album of portraits and views in Baroda' taken by an unknown photographer in c. 1880. The festival commemorates the popular saint Imam Husain, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson and the s...
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View of the Central Hall from the courtyard photographed by John Edward Saché (1870s). Nawab Asaf ud-Daula of Awadh (r.1775-97), requested architect Kifayat-ullah to construct the Great Imambara in 1784 , for the purpose of celebrating the Muslim festival of Muharr...
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The Muharram Festival. Asaf al-Daula, Nawab of Oudh, listening at night to the maulvi reading from the scriptures - 1795
Watercolour of the Muharram Festival, part of the Hyde collection, by an unknown artist working in the Murshidabad style, c. 1795. Inscribed on the back in pencil: 'The Nubob ...
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A Mahomedan of distinction with a Dervish on his Pilgrimage - 1813
Plate nineteen from the first volume of James Forbes' "Oriental Memoirs", a work based on copious notes and drawings made during his travels in India between the 1760s-70s. Forbes(1749-1819)spent most of his working life in Weste...
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Half-length portrait of a Muslim ascetic against a plain background taken by an unknown photographer in the early 1860s. This dervish or 'faqir' was a member of the Madaria order of Sufis who followed the saint Shaikh Sayyid Badi-u'd-din Qutb al-Madar. Born...
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Dervishes Dancing before a Group of Muslim Divines
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, ca. 1760
India, Deccan region
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
The small Persian inscription at the top of the painting identifies the scene: “Ecstatic Majlis of the Shaikhs of India”. A majlis is a nocturnal...
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