” I am sending Abdullah, my ambassador, and Dominic Perez (an Armenian Christian, the interpreter) with the request that you will send me two learned Fathers and the books of Law, especially the Gospel, that I may know the Law and its excellence…”

This began a close relationship between the Mughals and the Jesuits. This closeness was reflected in art and culture too. It is fascinating to notice the Indian and Persian influence on the paintings and features of the Madonna and Christ.

“The Armenians, who had two churches in Delhi (both destroyed by Nadir Shah in 1739) used to hold a Christmas drama at which Mughal nobles and Rajput chieftains were among the prominent invitees. They sought the emperor’s presence at the play in 1625-26 and Jahangir agreed as he sometimes used to attend a similar one held in Agra since his father’s time. At that play, records the Franciscan Annals, little boys and girls dressed as angels, took part on Christmas night. The emperor was present and rose petals were showered on him. Earlier, “on Christmas morning Akbar used to come to the church (he had ordered to be built) with his courtiers to see the representation of the cave in which Jesus was born and the good shepherds kept watch. Afterwards the ladies of his harem also visited the manger.” Jahangir once presented beeswax candles at the church at Lahore, “through which he was conducted like a bishop, to the chiming of bells and singing of carols”, writes historian R V Smith

The paintings commissioned by Akbar and Jahangir was a blend of Western iconography with Indian and Islamic elements. This is a Virgin and Child dating to 1600-25. Mary watches over  baby Jesus, who holds her hand and grasps flowers.

Jahangir and Jesus .The portrait of Jahangir was done by the Mughal artist, Hashim, and Jesus, by Abu’l Hassan. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

a folio from the Mughal Bible, showing the Nativity scene. The painting shows the limited knowledge of the painters as there are  two magis instead of three and there is a bejewelled Mary with the architecture popular in Islamic kingdoms as a background instead of a stable.

The Bible was translated nto Persian by Abul Fazl

A Madonna and Child, by one of Akbar’s court painters, Basavan (c. 1590)

Emperor Akbar’s exceptional interest in Christianity is reflected in many ways. Among these was his commissioning in 1602 of a Life of Christ from his guest, the Jesuit priest Jerome Xavier, called Mirʾāt al-quds (Mirror of Holiness): A Life of Christ for Emperor Akbar

Jahangir holding a picture of the Madonna, inscribed in Persian ( National Museum)

Madonna with Infant Jesus :attributed, 17th century, Mughal, Prince of Wales Museum of Western India. This was on a UK stamp in 2005 Christmas.

Adoration of the Christ Child
ca. 1630 (Golconda, Deccan, India) Freer and SakleyPainting, ca. 1600-1610. May depict the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, forty days after his birth. From the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Inn at Bethlehem  Mughal, Date: ca. 1600-05 V&A Museum

Christ seated in a palace chamber with a female devotee crouching at his feet, surrounded by male courtiers in European-style dress Mughal, circa 1610-20 ( Bonhams)

St Christopher Carrying the Christ Child, Ascribed in verso Emperor Jahangir’s Hand to the Artist Miskina Mughal, Akbar period, circa 1600

Christ seated in a palace chamber with a female devotee crouching at his feet, surrounded by male courtiers in European-style dress Mughal, circa 1610-20 (Bonhams)

Mughal depiction c 1630 of Virgin Mary and Jesus (J.14,2). British Library
Hossein Naqqash, Archangel Raphael, (c. 1590, Mughal; Musée Guimet, Paris)

Album of Persian and Indian calligraphy and paintings, Mary and Jesus, Walters Manuscript

Painting, ca. 1600-1610. May depict the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, forty days after his birth. From the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In Iran, as in India, parrots (in light of their purported conversational abilities) are popular as storytellers in works of fiction.

The Parrot addresses Khojasta, a scene from the Tutinama (1556–1565) paintings
The adventure stories narrated by a parrot, night after night, for 52 successive nights, are moralistic stories. the Tuti-nama.

“A Young Woman Visited by the Sultan’s Viziers”
India, Mughal; c. 1570

The next project was The Hamzanama  or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza -(Adventures of Amir Hamza) narrates the legendary exploits of Hamza bin Azrak, a brave man who lived in the Banu Abbas reign.These are fanciful romantic tales and lend themselves beautifully to illustration.

Though  Babur, described the Hamzanama as “one long far-fetched lie; opposed to sense and nature”, his grandson Akbar, who came to throne at the age of fourteen, enjoyed it so much that he commissioned his court workshop to create an illustrated manuscript of the Hamzanama.

The project was conceived on such an unusually large scale that it took fourteen years, from about 1562 to 1577, to complete. It had 1400 paintings.

The Gulistan by Saadi was illustrated in Fatehpur Sikri in 1582

in a Rose garden, from a Mughal manuscript of the Gulistan.

The Khamsa of Nizami in the British Library,  is a lavishly illustrated manuscript of the Khamsa or “five poems” of Nizami Ganjavi, a 12th-century Persian poet, which was created for the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the early 1590s by a number of artists and a single scribe working at the Mughal court.
But it was the Persian translation Ramayana  and Mahabharat which were the highlight miniature  painting in Akbar reign

According to Abul Fazl, these translations were ordered by Emperor Akbar to dispel the fanatical hatred between Hindus and Muslims as he was convinced that it arose only from mutual ignorance.

The first Ramayana in Persian was by Mulla’ Abdul Qadir Badayuni. In AH 992 (1584 AD) Emperor Akbar asked him to translate it from Sanskrit.

In 1574, Akbar had established a translation bureau (maktab khana) at his capital of Fatehpur Sikri. Here, the emperor’s top scribes and secretaries were given the task of translating a range of Sanskrit texts. Mahabharata,the epic comprises approximately 100,000 verses, the endeavor was formidable and the result is an abridgment rather than a strict translation of the entire text. Titled the Razmnama (Book of War), the copiously illustrated imperial manuscript—completed between 1584 and 1586—is housed in the City Palace Museum in Jaipur

The battle of Duryodhana and Bhima (among others.) From the 1616-1617 edition of the Razmnama.

The challenge was in painting the epic characters in Mughal settings and clothes!

depiction of Hindu and Muslim scholars translating the Mahabharata from Sanskrit into Persian. This is another example of an attempt to contemporize the text. From the 1598–99 copy of the Razmnama.
Image source: The Free Library of Philadelphia

A folio from a 1616 copy of the Razmnama in which: “Asvatthama Fires the Narayana Weapon (Cosmic Fire) at the Pandavas.”

Krishna and the Golden City of Dwarka” a miniature from a different translated Sanskrit text called the Harivamsha (Geneology of Vishnu,) also commissioned by Akbar. 1585.
Image source: Sackler Freer Gallery

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His paintings of birds and animals are also often unsigned, but his skill is always unmistakable, and Jahangir’s praise often helps to identify the artist.
Mansur painted the first turkey which entered India as a gift.
But his most important painting is that of the dodo an extinct bird. He made the painting from looking at the actual bird.