Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings, from the St. Petersburg album
9.961 in × 7.087 in · Mughal Miniature
Commission a hand-painted reproduction from Panchrang artists.
A Mughal miniature by the court painter Bichitr. The emperor Jahangir sits on an hourglass throne, ringed by a solar and lunar halo, handing a book to an aged Sufi shaikh. The figure is Shaikh Husain Ajmeri, a descendant of Moinuddin Chishti and keeper of the Chishti dargah at Ajmer, where Jahangir had stayed between 1613 and 1616. Below the shaikh stand an Ottoman sultan and King James I of England, both overlooked in favour of the holy man, and in the lower-left corner Bichitr paints himself into the scene.
Gouache, gold and ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art, Washington. The work blends Persian technique, European realism, and Mughal imperial iconography, which is why it is often treated as the defining example of the school.