Persian Miniature Painting: The Turkmen Prisoner
Persian Miniature Painting: The Turkmen Prisoner 1590 – 1600 by Farrukh Beg
The Turkmen Prisoner 1590 – 1600 by Farrukh Beg
The Turkmen Prisoner- 1590 – 1600 Signed by Farrukh Beg.
Farrukh Beg was a Mongol artist who was in Khorasan until 1585 with artists who had been in the atelier of Ibrahim Mirza in Khorasan . He spent 1585 to 1600 at the the atelier of Akbar. Farrukh Beg was downsized in 1600 in the same design shift in which Miskin fell out of favor. He was in the Deccan until 1608 and this shows the style he used when he returned to the court of Jahangir in Mughal India. While the realistic detail in Mughal Shrub Carpets may derive from European botanicals the rows of clumps of flowers appears to have entered the Mughal design repertoire from the work of Farrukh Beg upon his return from the Deccan.
It is commonly written that Farrukh Beg was a Persian born artist but I have decided that that is unlikely. Farrukh is a very talented artist and there is no other Farrukh who was of similar stature at the court of Akbar. So when we look at Abu’l Fazl list of the most important artist I believe that Farrukh Beg is the Farrukh the Qalmaq listed ninth. A Qalmaq or Kalmuck as it is often written refers to a member of the Oirat tribe. The Oirat were a Mongol tribe that in 1453 assassinated the Chingizid Mongol Khan Toqtoa-buqa and became vassals of China. An extremely important and powerful tribal nation- state the Oirat held the land from the upper Yenisi to the valley of the Ili. For a discussion of the Oirat in this period see Rene Grousset’s The Empire of the Steppes, p. 507 – 509.
Just a thought on the headgear of the subject to the left. It is more central Asian than Persian.