The young man of Baghdad reunited with his slave-girl, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The young man of Baghdad reunited with his slave-girl, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth 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:

After the young man was left behind by his merchant ship, his lover, the slave girl, believed that he was dead. She erected a monument in his honor and donned black clothes of mourning, yet fate brought them together again. Here, the two lovers embrace in front of the young man’s empty grave.

Object facts

• Title: The young man of Baghdad reunited with his slave-girl, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth 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: 10.7 x 10.1 cm (4 3/16 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.310.a

A detail from the museum

The space designated for the sky has not been painted.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

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.