The three young men present themselves as suitors for the hand of Zuhra, the daughter of the merchant of Kabul, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-fourth Night
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see three young men standing before a merchant, each trying to win his daughter’s hand. Above them, two women peek through a lattice, listening. The men show off their skills—one reads fortunes, another brings wooden horses to life, and the third is a sharp shooter. This painting comes from a book of stories told by a parrot to keep its owner from sneaking out at night. The tales were meant to entertain, but the art also shows how people dressed, talked, and lived in Mughal India. To see more like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
