Preparation for the marriage of Mahmuda to the Young Vizier, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-third Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

Preparation for the marriage of Mahmuda to the Young Vizier, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-third Night (c. 1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In the lower register of this bustling scene, musicians play in celebration of the impending wedding. Above, the betrothed couple sits at the right. Although Mahmuda was happily engaged to her childhood sweetheart, Ayaz, the young vizier wanted her for himself. Mahmuda’s father, the grand vizier, agrees to the arrangement. Heartbroken, Ayaz believes he has lost Mahmuda forever.

Object facts

• Title: Preparation for the marriage of Mahmuda to the Young Vizier, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-third Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 16.3 x 10.2 cm (6 7/16 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.219.b

A detail from the museum

Mahmuda’s name means “praised” or “blessed.”

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.
• Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, and Muhammed Ahmed Simsar. Tales of a Parrot = The Cleveland Museum of Art's Ṭūṭīnāma. Cleveland: The Museum, 1978.

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.