Miniature pasted on an album leaf. ‘Portrait of Sultan Ali Adil Shah I of Bijapur’
India, Deccan, Bijapur; c. 1570
Leaf: 33.3 × 24.2 cm
As the fifth ruler in the dynasty, Ali Adil Shah I (1558-1579) succeeded in expanding Bijapur’s territory considerably. He entered into an alliance with the other Muslim sultanates in the northern Deccan, and in 1565, they jointly defeated vast Vijayanagar, most of which came under Bijapur’s control. There was, however, a political dichotomy between Bijapur and this Hindu empire in the south. The Muslim sultanates in the Deccan were moreover often at war among themselves.
In art, Hindu and Muslim culture exerted a major mutual influence in Bijapur and the other sultanates, something that is also reflected in the magnificent dagger that Ali Adil Shah I wears in this miniature. Its hilt is formed by several animals in a style indebted to Hindu sculpture.
A closely related dagger is
36/1997.
Inv. no. 6/2013
Published in:
Sotheby’s, London, 7/7-1975, lot 85;
Spink & Son: Persian and Islamic art, London 1977, cat.no. 37;
Mark Zebrowski: Deccani painting, London 1983, p. 65, fig. 48;
Robert Elgood: Hindu arms and ritual: arms and armour from India 1400-1865, Delft 2004, fig. 11.9, p. 115;
Sotheby’s, London, 24/4-2013, lot 80;
Howard Ricketts: “Ahmadnagar: Nizam Shahi blazons, animal sculptures and zoomorphic arms in the 16th century” in Journal of the David Collection, 4, 2014, p. 148, fig. 1;
Navina Najat Haidar and Marika Sardar: Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: opulence and fantasy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New Haven 2015, cat.no. 24;
Deborah Hutton: “Memory and monarchy: a seventeenth-century painting from Bijapur and its afterlives” in South Asian studies, 2016, p. 10;
Ravinder Reddy: Arms and armour of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka: types, decoration and symbolism, London 2018, p. 267;
Kjeld von Folsach, Joachim Meyer and Peter Wandel: Fighting, Hunting, Impressing. Arms and Armour from the Islamic World 1500-1850, The David Collection, Copenhagen 2021, cat.no. 117;
Usha R. Balakrishnan (ed.): Diamonds across time. Facets of mankind, London 2020, pp. 198, 200, fig. 17;
