Johnson 22,5

Shayistah Khan (d.1694).

By Gyan Chand, Mughal, c.1670.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Numbered 35 in Persian inventory note; inscribed below in Persian: ‘navab shayistah khan bahadur’ (Nawab Shayistah Khan Bahadur); on reverse: ‘navab’ ‘shayistah khan: kar-i ustad’ (work of the master); and:‘‘amal-i gyan chand’ (the work of Gyan Chand); also numbered ‘15’ and ‘30’.

Tinted drawing with gold; on an album page with border of gold arabesques and an outer margin of flowers in colours and gold on a plain background (in the style of the Victoria and Albert Museum Clive Albums).

205 by 141 mm; page 340 by 223 mm.

In the centre of the reverse side is a circular seal inscribed: ‘Ashraf Khan, murid-i Shah ‘Alamgir’ with the date AH1072/AD1661-62; the seal is accompanied by an inscription which mentions the price of 125 rupees (in ‘raqam).’

Reproduced: Smith (1911), pl.CXXXI; Smith (1923), 424.

Shayistah Khan sits on a terrace against a cushion, dressed in white, with a pink cushion and gold ‘pan’ box beside him. There are clouds above.

Note: Shayistah Khan, Amir al-Umra, Khalaf al-Sidq, Yamin al-Daula Asaf Khan (Mirza Abu Talib), the conqueror of Sivaji in 1666, held numerous high offices under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb (Shah Nawaz Khan (1922-52), II, 825-36). He opposed the British trading stations in Bengal but resigned the governorship of that province in 1689. He died in 1694. Ashraf Khan, Mir Bakhshi under Aurangzeb, (d.AH1097/AD1685-86), was the owner of an album formerly in the British Library Add.MS.18801, now in the British Museum. This page possibly comes from that album, which contains another portrait of Shayistah Khan on folio 36.