Page of disasters, from the Tarikh-i Alfi (History of a Thousand Years) (c. 1595): Art, History and Details

Page of disasters, from the Tarikh-i Alfi (History of a Thousand Years) (c. 1595) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A distinctive feature of this manuscript is the descriptive painting surrounding the blocks of text. At the top of this page is a depiction of the sacred center of Islam, the black stone structure called the Ka‘ba in Mecca that the Prophet Muhammad cleansed of pre-Muslim idols. The Ka‘ba is the endpoint of the Islamic pilgrimage that all Muslims are enjoined to make at least once during their lifetime. Remarkably, Akbar’s name appears on the page of the book held by a devotee, where only prayers or Qur'anic passages should be found. During the time of the caliph who persecuted Shi‘ites, Mecca experienced a drought. Fountains of water now were dry, and pilgrims had to buy water that was carried there.

Object facts

• Title: Page of disasters, from the Tarikh-i Alfi (History of a Thousand Years)
• Date: c. 1595
• Culture: India, Mughal school, 16th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 41 x 22.6 cm (16 1/8 x 8 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1932.36.b

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "A Mughal Miniature." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 19, no. 6 (June 1932): 95-97.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.