An Ayyar murders Qubad in his sleep
1570
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1570
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
An Ayyar murders Qubad in his sleep is a 1570 paint by Unknown, a Mughal Painting work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a scene of violence: a man is being murdered in his sleep. The story behind it is interesting - it's part of a big book of stories called the Hamzanama. It was made for a powerful emperor named Akbar, and it tells the story of a hero's adventures. To learn more about this style of painting, look up the technique: sfumato.
The illustration depicts the murder of Qubad, son of Hamza, as he sleeps on a throne beneath a tented canopy adorned with gold-ground animal and tree motifs above and blue-ground arabesques below, supported by red pillars. An ayyar, acting on a misunderstood order from Hamza’s father-in-law Anushirvan, slits Qubad’s throat while attendants sleep inside the enclosure and others remain outside. The scene is part of the *Hamzanama*, a Mughal commissioned epic chronicling Hamza’s adventures, produced between 1562 and 1577 under Emperor Akbar’s direction. The surviving fragment was acquired by the…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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