The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

The young man of Baghdad joins the Hashimi’s boat as a sailor to find his slave-girl on board, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth 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: 11.4 x 10 cm (4 1/2 x 3 15/16 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.307.a
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The title “Hashimi” designates the bearer as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad’s great-grandfather, Hashim.

Description

After losing all his possessions, the destitute young man joins the crew of a merchant ship. Upon boarding, he quickly realizes that this ship belongs to the same merchant who purchased his lover, the slave girl. She stands in the center of the boat, her finger raised in a gesture of shock, gazing toward her long-lost love.
  • ?–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.
  • Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. p. 79, 146
    Natif, Mika. Mughal Occidentalism: Artistic Encounters between Europe and Asia at the Courts of India, 1580-1630. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Reproduced: p. 167, fig. 56
  • {{cite web|title=The young man of Baghdad joins the Hashimi’s boat as a sailor to find his slave-girl on board, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.307.a