World History

Call Number - 0003596 Shelf Mark - Or.Ms 20 The bier of Mahmud ibn Sebuktegin. The picture is divided into two by a wooden column with an onion-shaped capital, the section to the right, which contains the bier, being double the width of that to the left, in which the principal mourner is seated, with three others in Mongol hats (type B) standing behind him. A pelmet or frieze runs along the top of the larger section, and from it a gauze curtain is suspended, reaching to the ground but pulled aside by a man, in Arab dress and with a white beard, to reveal the coffin of the dead ruler. On it stands a gold cup, while his turban can be seen behind on a trestle stool. Beneath the bier are a gold basin and ewer. The general composition of the scene, with its divisions, corresponds with that of [f.112r] and [f.116v], and the painting is probably to be attributed to the Luhrasp Master. The subject was treated again in Topkapi Sarayi manuscript, Hazine 1653 folio 280v, where the more Islamic custom of two candlesticks beside the coffin is followed, as it had been for the great funeral scene of lskandar in the Demotte Shah-nama. In neither of these are the cup, ewer and basin to be seen, and it is probable that they represent a Turkish, pre-Islamic custom. The transparent curtain probably represents a borrowing from Chinese painting, which would be in accord with the tendency of the Luhrasp painter.