The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Vertically oriented book page with bands of Persian script above and below a painting depicting Maimuna, a woman with light skin tone, at the bottom of a black pit, clinging to a branch above her and surrounded by pale orange, green, and purple rocks. Above, Mukhtar, a man with light skin tone, looks down into the pit. The background behind the rocks is solid gold, with what look like tents sticking up on our left.

Mukhtar throws his wife Maimuna into the pit, but she saves herself, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-fifth Night

c. 1560

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 11.2 x 10.1 cm (4 7/16 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.174.b
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

The artist shows the mouth of the pit at the top and in cross-section below.

Description

Maimuna clings to a branch in a dark pit while her villainous husband watches from above. He threw her into the pit in an attempt to steal her possessions. However, because Maimuna was guiltless, luck and fate saved her from an untimely death.
  • ?–1959
    Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD
    1959–1962?
    (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA)
    1959?–1962
    (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry)
    1962–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (May 16, 1881–September 26, 1958) was an American diplomat and politician, who served in the administrations of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long is largely remembered for his obstructionist role as the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for granting refugee visas during World War II. His interests included the collection of antiques, paintings and American ship models. He maintained a stable of Thoroughbred race horses and was a director of the Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, and he enjoyed fox hunting, fishing, and sailing.
  • Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 2025-January 11, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=Mukhtar throws his wife Maimuna into the pit, but she saves herself, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-fifth Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.174.b