The dervish brings the King of Kings before the king of Bahilistan, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The dervish brings the King of Kings before the king of Bahilistan, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh 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:

The vizier advised the king that he should tell the dervish that he must bring the head of the King of Kings before he will give his daughter in marriage to him. The dervish then went to the King of Kings with his plight, who said that he would go himself to the local king, and bring him his head still attached to his body. At the bottom of the composition is a formal garden with leafy groundcover and canals of water. The composition has been altered, as there was an oval of gold beneath the central pool of water and orange tiles under the architectural pavilions on the roof. The strip of blue with delicate floral arabesque was added in accordance with a taste for more updated Persian styles.

Object facts

• Title: The dervish brings the King of Kings before the king of Bahilistan, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh 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: 13.3 x 9.9 cm (5 1/4 x 3 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.46.a

A detail from the museum

This painting was likely done by the same artist who made folios 20r (1962.279.20.a), 30r (1962.279.30.a), and 46v (1962.279.46.b).

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.
• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.
• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.

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.