The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

The siege of Arbela in the era of Hulagu Khan, page from a Chingiz-nama (Book of Chingiz Khan) of the Jami al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) of Rashid al-Din (Persian,1247–1318)

c. 1596
designed by

Basavana

(Indian, active c. 1560–1600)

Sur Das

(Indian)
Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Image: 34 x 20 cm (13 3/8 x 7 7/8 in.); Overall: 38.5 x 25 cm (15 3/16 x 9 13/16 in.); with mat: 49 x 36.3 cm (19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1947.502.a
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

This fortified city in the heart of Kurdistan, now called Irbil, is in Iraq.

Description

A Mongol conqueror riding a white horse gazes stonily at his defeated West Asian opponent in a scene that took place more than 300 years before this painting was made. By the end of the 1500s there was a new emphasis on creating paintings to accompany historical texts. Visually, the diagonal composition with cityscape at the top of the page—also found among the earliest Mughal paintings—was expanded to include throngs of participants and a startling new naturalism. Painting from the Akbar period reached its maturity by the 1590s in works such as this: dynamic in composition and gestures but contained within organized spaces and emphasized three-dimensionality.
  • Demotte
    ?-1947
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1947-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 777 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 237 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 237 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 304 archive.org
    Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 16
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. p. 22, cat. no. 1
  • Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 20-August 18, 2004).
    Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 4-August 5, 2003.
    Exhibition of the Month: Indian Miniatures. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 15-September 28, 1952).
  • {{cite web|title=The siege of Arbela in the era of Hulagu Khan, page from a Chingiz-nama (Book of Chingiz Khan) of the Jami al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) of Rashid al-Din (Persian,1247–1318)|url=false|author=Basavana, Sur Das|year=c. 1596|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1947.502.a