Padshahnamah fol. 116v
(plate 19)

Shah-Jahan receives a group of Europeans.

This opening in the Padshahnamah manuscript was originally intended for a double page image. Instead, two separate paintings face each other: this, and RCIN 1005025.u. The accompanying text suggests that the illustration should depict the durbar of Shah Jahan when Mir Sabir presented the Emperor with coins newly minted in Daulatabad by Malik Amber’s son, Fath Khan. Instead, the painting depicts Shah-Jahan holding court in the Hall of Public Audience in Agra as a group of Europeans bearing gifts wait to be received.

The illustration opposite depicts the Mughal attack on the Portuguese trading station at Hugli in 1632 and the European figures may be some of the Portuguese prisoners brough back to Agra. The Padshahnamah text states that 'of the prisoners, four hundred men and women, young and old were brought before the Islam-nourishing Padshah's [Shah-Jahan's] view.'

Bibliography:
Milo Beach and Ebba Koch, King of the world : the Padshahnama, an imperial Mughal manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1996
Saqib Baburi, Beyond the Akbarnamah: Padshahnamahs and Official Regnal Chronography for Shah-Jahan Padshah (r. 1037/1628-1068/1658), 2010.