Johnson 7,11

Portrait of Miyan Mir.

Mughal, c.1650-60.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Persian inventory note (not numbered); numbered 41 in top left corner of reverse.

Gouache; on a finely decorated album leaf with two inner borders of gold flowers on red and blue paper, incorporating a ‘bait’ in calligraphic ‘nasta‘liq’ above and below, the outer border with flowering plants in colours and gold.

175 by 100 mm; page 405 by 269 mm.

Circular seal with the title ‘Padshah ‘Alamgir’ and the date AH1090/AD1679-80.

Reverse: three ‘baits’ of a ‘ghazal’ written in ‘nasta‘liq’ calligraphy by Muhammad Husain Zarrin Qalam on blue-tinted paper with a background of illumination; the borders decorated with gold flowers.

Miyan Mir, facing left, stands in a flowery field holding an orange volume. He has a white beard, and a large pale green shawl is thrown about his shoulders; green background.

Note: Miyan Mir or Shah Mir, whose real name was Mir Muhammad, was a Faruqi, born at Siwistan, ‘ie’ Sehwan in Sind, in the mid-sixteenth century (the precise date is disputed). He settled in Lahore and had been living there for more than sixty years when he died in 1635. His tomb is to the east of Lahore at the place called Miyan Mir close to the military cantonment.