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 1,000th anniversary of Islam, according to the Hijri calendar followed by the Mughals and all Muslims, occurred during Akbar’s reign in 1592. He commemorated this milestone in many ways, including the commissioning of a new history of the Islamic world since the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632. The episode discussed on this page took place during the 800s, when hailstorms beset Egypt and an earthquake hit Syria. The ruling 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 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.a

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.

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.