Location: current whereabouts unknown
Mount: Orange (now faded) mount with gold decoration 35.9 x 23.4 cm. Blue collar.
Written surface: 23.7 (estimated) x 15.0 cm.
Painting: 20.8 x 15.0 cm.
Text references: J.K., p.346 lines 14 to 16
Savory, SA_1979, p.59.

Date of this event: 915/1508. The place is the shah's summer quarters at Khoy in Azerbaijan.
Eskandar Monshi’s record of these affairs (Savory, SA_1979, p.59) is summary, terse, and in some respects conflicting with the account cited here. Monshi states that Shåhibeg Khan, taking advantage of the dissension between the Timurid princes, invaded Khorasan in 913/1507, gave battle to, and defeated the sons of Sultan Ḥoseyn, and according to Monshi, subsequently put them to death. This text and the ʿĀlam-ārā-ye Shah Esmāʿil however, give a somewhat different account, that some of the sons of Sultan Ḥoseyn escaped the onslaught of Šāhibeg Khan, in particular Badiʿ al-Zamān, who fled to Estarabād. Shah Esmāʿil, hearing of Badiʿ al-Zamān’s escape, has the young prince brought before the Safavid court where Badiʿ entreats Esmāʿil for a new army to renew the fight against the Uzbegs.

Altogether ten personages are represented. Three qezelbāš emirs are seated in the lower left; another holds Badiʿ prostrate before the shah; and lastly one, partially cropped in the lower right, is leaning on a walking stick. Esmāʿil is seated dominantly on a throne in the left center, ceremonially dressed in white. Two Safavid sword bearers stand on the flanks, and another, apparently in the service of Badiʿ, is in the lower right foreground. Three tents and the lush verdure of the foreground suggest the summer quarters. One line of calligraphiy above and below the painting. Unsigned.

Painting references:
Skinner Auctioneers (Boston) on-line sale catalog, sale 2317, 29 April 2006, Lot 82.
Christies London, 13 April 2010, Lot 98.

Photo courtesy of Christie's. ©Christie's Images Ltd. 2012

Robert Eng
Last Updated: September 24, 2012 | Originally published: September 24, 2012