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

Page of disasters, from the Tarikh-i Alfi (History of the 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:

The Tarikh-i Alfi, or “Thousand Year History,” was commissioned by Mughal Emperor Akbar (reigned 1565–1605) in 1582. The work is a historical narrative that aimed to document the first millennium of Islamic history, from the death of Prophet Muhammad to Akbar's reign. At the top of the painting is a rare hailstorm that occurred during the time of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (reigned 822–61) in Sawaid, Egypt; the middle register shows the building of a palace at Damascus under the same caliph; and the bottom section depicts the destruction of Antioch by an earthquake in the 850. The caliph at the time was strongly prejudiced against Muslims who belonged to the Shi‘ite branch of Islam. Akbar seemed to be asking his artists to emphasize the natural disasters that took place, suggesting that they occurred as a result of the ruler’s intolerance.

Object facts

• Title: Page of disasters, from the Tarikh-i Alfi (History of the Thousand [Years])
• Date: c. 1595
• Culture: India, Mughal, 16th century, made for Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• 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

A detail from the museum

Devastation after an earthquake includes a horse trapped under a fallen pavilion.

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.