Table Of ContentMughal Occidentalism
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Studies in
Persian Cultural History
Editors
Charles Melville (Cambridge University)
Gabrielle van den Berg (Leiden University)
Sunil Sharma (Boston University)
Volume 15
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/spch
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Mughal Occidentalism
Artistic Encounters
between Europe and Asia at the
Courts of India, 1580–1630
By
Mika Natif
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Detail of A Sinner’s Passionate Plea to God, fol. 75v from a Kulliyat (collection of poetry)
by Saʿdī, Mughal, ca. 1604. Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper. © The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto,
AKM00284.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Natif, Mika, author.
Title: Mughal occidentalism : artistic encounters between Europe and Asia at
the courts of India, 1580-1630 / by Mika Natif.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Studies in Persian
cultural history ; Volume 15 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018024069 (print) | LCCN 2018031856 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004374997 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004371095 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Painting, Mogul Empire—European influences. |
Painting, Mogul Empire—Themes, motives. | Art, European—Influence.
Classification: LCC ND1002 (ebook) | LCC ND1002 .N38 2018 (print) |
DDC 759.95402/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024069
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2210-3554
isbn 978-90-04-37109-5 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-37499-7 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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To all my cats, big, small and tall
∵
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Contents
Acknowledgments IX
List of Illustrations xiI
Abbreviations and Conventions xx
Introduction 1
Brief Historical Background 3
Defining Mughal Occidentalism 7
Christian and European Elements in Islamic Art 12
Organization of the Book 22
1 Mughal Tolerance and the Encounters with Europe 26
Religious Tolerance under Akbar and Jahangir 26
Mughals and Europeans: The Encounters 36
The Challenge of Primary Sources 43
Diplomatic Gifts and “Special” Christian Articles 48
The Mughal Elite and Pictures of Mary and Jesus 56
2 Mughal Masters and European Art: Tradition and Innovation at the
Royal Workshops 68
Copying and Innovation at the Imperial Workshops 69
Repurposing the European Masters 84
3 European Articles in Mughal Painting 110
European Prints in Mughal Albums 112
Visualizing European Articles in Mughal Painting 124
The Organ: Plato Making Music 135
4 Landscape Painting as Mughal Allegory: Micro-Architecture, Perspective
and ṣulḥ-i kull 152
The Mughal Interest in Topography 157
Chronology of Change in Landscape Representation 164
Images of Urbanism and Agriculture: Diversity and Prosperity 171
The Virtuous City and the Circle of Justice 184
European Techniques: Sfumato and Atmospheric Perspective 193
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viii Contents
5 Concepts of Portraiture under Akbar and Jahangir 205
Mughal Terminology and Praxis 207
Form, Essence, and Physiognomy 229
The Politics of Portraiture 242
Epilogue 261
Bibliography 271
Index 294
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Acknowledgments
I first visited India as an eight-year-old, at the tail end of my father’s work in
the Philippines as a water engineer. We toured Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Varanasi,
Khajoraho, and other places that made unforgettable impressions on us. I’d
like to think that my love for India and especially for the Mughals started there.
Writing a book is not a solitary act. This project could never have come to
fruition without the support, love, patience and generosity of many individu-
als and institutions. I owe thanks to my advisor, Priscilla Soucek, who encour-
aged me to follow the footsteps of Babur and shift my intellectual interest from
Central Asia to Mughal India. From her sharp perception, I have learned to ask
questions and look closely at works of art. Oleg Grabar, my teacher, mentor
and former boss, spent endless time listening to my thoughts, arguing points,
always supportive, enthusiastic and encouraging. He taught me how to think
big without losing sight of details, as he patiently pushed me to stop procras-
tinating. This book has been ten years in the making thanks to his voice in my
head.
At the early stages of this project, during my years at the Institute for
Advanced Studies in Princeton, I benefited from various exchanges with
Marilyn and Irving Lavin, Patricia Crone, and Nicola Di Cosmo. At the Max
Planck Institute in Florence, I enjoyed exciting conversations with Avinoam
Shalem, Gerhard Wolf, Annette Hofmann, Galia Halpern, and Olga Bush. As
a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the College of the Holy Cross, I was able to
further my research, writing, and traveling, and develop as a teacher and a
scholar through the mentorship of Jody Ziegler and Virginia Reguin, who
took me under their wings. In later stages of my book project, the generos-
ity of the Aga Khan fellowship programs at Harvard and MIT was crucial in
providing me with the perfect conditions to work. I am truly grateful to Gulru
Necipoglu, Nasser Rabbat, David Roxburgh, Jim Wescoat, and my co-fellows,
Jan Haenraets and Anas Soufan, for their support and comments on portions
of the book.
This kind of research requires extensive travelling (which I love) and the help
of many people, to whom I owe endless thanks: Yashodhara Agrawal and Ajay
Kumar Singh (Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi), Sheila Canby and Navina Najat
Haidar (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Ms. Daljit (formerly of National
Museum, New Delhi), Massumeh Farhad, Debra Diamond and Simon Retting
(Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art, Smithsonian Institution), Susan Stronge
(Victoria and Albert Museum), Muhammad Isa Waley and Ursula Sims-Williams
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x Acknowledgments
(British Library), Elaine Wright (formerly of Chester Beatty library). I am also
profoundly grateful to Qamar Adamji (Museum of Asian Art, San Francisco),
Adel Adamova (Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), Filiz Çakir Phillip (The
Aga Khan Museum, Toronto), Asok Kumar Das (formerly of City Palace
Museum, Jaipur), Kjeld von Folsach (The David Collection, Copenhagen), Julia
Gonnella (formerly of Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin), Bindu Gude, Stephen
Markel and Linda Komaroff (Los Angeles County Museum), Amy Landau
(Walters Art Museum, Baltimore), Sophie Makariou, Jean-Baptiste Clais (for-
merly of Musée du Louvre), Mary McWilliams (Harvard Art Museums), Amina
Okada (Musée Guimet), Christoph Rauch (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), Francis
Richard and Annie Vernay-Nouri (Bibliothèque Nationale de France), Marika
Sardar (formerly of San Diego Art Museum), Andrew Topsfield and Francesca
Leoni (Ashmolean Museum), and Laura Weinstein (Boston Museum of Fine
Arts) for opening their collections and storage rooms for me.
I am indebted to many friends and colleagues who responded to queries,
gave thoughtful advice, and shared their expertise and materials with me. It is
my pleasure to mention Sussan Babaie, Chanchal Dadlani, Barry Flood, Andrea
Gallelli Huezo, Abduallah Ghushani, Eva Hoffman, Chad Kia, Amy Landau,
Francesca Leoni, Paul Losensky, Amanda Luyster, Maya Muratov, Rachel Neis,
Sunil Sharma, Robert Skelton and Aysin Yoltar-Yildirim. I am indebted to
Tamara Sears for providing feedback on an early version of the manuscript,
and my writing group: Marden Nichols, Michelle Wang and Katherine Wasdin,
who patiently saw me through the evolving stages of this book. My thanks go
to all of them for their generosity and thoughtfulness. I am also grateful for the
insightful comments of the two anonymous reviewers from Brill.
Through their teaching, thinking and sharing of ideas, my colleagues at the
George Washington University have created a positive intellectual environ-
ment for me to work. My warmest thanks go to the faculty of the Art History
program, the diverse departments and institutions at Columbian College and
the Elliot School.
I gratefully acknowledge funding support for research, manuscript editing,
and image procurement and permissions from the Columbian College of Arts
and Sciences, the program in Art History, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies,
the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies at GW, and the American Association
of University Women.
Kathy van Vliet of Brill Publishers has been commendable, supportive, and
patient throughout this process. Marsha Pomeranz made my prose understood
and legible. I am also appreciative of the excellent editorial assistance provid-
ed by Pam Ozaroff and Andy Johnson.
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