ii. ART AND ARCHITECTURE

The development of centers of Islamic culture and learning in the Deccan under the Bahmanid sultans (see BAHMANID DYNASTY) and their successors introduced new architectural forms and artistic traditions to the region. Deccani monuments generally reflect the taste current in such other Indian Islamic centers as Delhi ii., Mandu, Gujarat, and Multan, but certain buildings and manuscripts reveal direct connections with Persian artistic traditions. They were probably produced by, or even for, recent arrivals from Persia. Often the most strikingly Persian features are calligraphy and decoration, suggesting that several of the Persian émigrés were scribes also trained in the art of illumination. The architectural and artistic evidence suggests that both religious bonds and the long-standing commercial links between Persia and the Deccan provided important conduits for cultural traditions. Initially enthusiasm for Persian architecture, calligraphy, illumination, and painting was probably restricted to court circles in the Deccan, but eventually some imported features were fused with local traditions in a distinctive regional style.

Architecture.

The first Islamic monuments in the Deccan followed precedents set in Delhi. For example, the congregational mosque of Dawlatābād (718/1318 and later) was constructed with pillars gathered from Hindu monuments, and 14th-century Bahmanid tombs at Golbarga have the heavy sloping walls and low domes characteristic of Tughluqid mausolea (Davies, pp. 451-52, 471-72; Merklinger, 1981, pp. 11-16). During the 15th century, however, Deccani culture became more cosmopolitan, especially at the new capital, Bīdar, or Moḥammadābād, established by Aḥmad Shah Bahmanī (825-39/1422-36) in 827/1424. Bīdar remained the capital of both his descendants and their successors the Barīdšāhīs (897-1028/1491-1619).

Bahmanids. Persian connections are evident in both palatial architecture and mausolea at Bīdar. Aḥmad Shah was a member of the Sufi order of Shah Neʿmat-Allāh Walī Kērmānī (730-834/1329-1431), and this personal tie, cemented by marital alliances between the two families, led to the transfer of Persian artistic traditions to the new capital. That Aḥmad Shah sent lavish gifts to Kermān and financed construction of a mausoleum over Neʿmat-Allāh’s grave there may have encouraged Persian craftsmen to migrate to the Deccan (Golombek and Wilber, I, pp. 394-95, II, pls. 401-02; cf. Farzˊām; Bāstānī-Pārīzī, pp. 578-82). The cosmopolitan artistic climate of Bīdar is manifest in Aḥmad Shah’s own tomb. The manner in which its hemispherical dome rests on an octagonal drum has been compared to Timurid examples, but the basic type of square tomb was so widely diffused in the Indian subcontinent that any connection to Persia was probably indirect (Merklinger, 1981, pp. 10-16, 113-14). The proportions and such embellishment as wall niches and corner finials resemble those of earlier tombs in Multan, for example, that of Šams-al-Dīn Sabzavārī (729/1329 and later; Khan, pp. 204-14), and numerous 15th-century tombs in the Delhi region (Nath, pp. 76-83; Brown, pp. 27-28, 66). It is, rather, the polychrome interior wall paintings that demonstrate a direct religious and artistic connection with Persia. Numerous inscriptions are combined with ornamental medallions and interstitial designs of floral sprays. In the inscriptions prayers appropriate to a tomb are juxtaposed with texts more characteristic of a ḵānaqāh, or Sufi monastery, reflecting Aḥmad Shah’s ties to Shah Neʿmat-Allāh. Those just above the prayer niche (meḥrāb), giving Aḥmad Shah’s titles and death date, bear the signature of a certain Šokr-Allāh Qazvīnī Naqqāš, who may have been responsible for the interior decoration of the entire tomb (Yazdani, pp. 114-28); if so, he must have combined the skills of both calligrapher and decorator. Verses composed by Neʿmat-Allāh are inscribed above the entrances, and the text of one of his mystical treatises encircles the walls just above the dado. Concentric inscription bands in the dome include two versions of Neʿmat-Allāh’s spiritual lineage, one through the Qāderīya order and the other to Ḥasan Baṣrī. Above and below these texts are panels containing the dorūd, a benedictory prayer that concludes at the apex of the dome with blessings on the twelve Shiʿite imams (Yazdani, pp. 115-21, pls. LXXIII-LXXIV; Merklinger, 1981, p. 113 no. 40, fig. 8, plan 9; Sherwani, p. 131 illus. 10). The variously shaped medallions and floral sprays in Aḥmad Shah’s tomb are executed in black, white, gray, and gold against a deep-red ground, a color scheme that may reflect the range of pigments available in Bīdar (Yazdani, pls. LXXIII-LXXIV). On the other hand, the medallion shapes, the arabesque schemes framed by them, and the lush blossoms between them have numerous parallels in the decorative repertoire of the naqqāš, or “painter-decorator,” in 15th-century Persia (Lentz and Lowry, pp. 204-11; Grube, pp. 178-80, figs. 27-30). Disturbed conditions in Persia in the middle decades of the century seem to have encouraged skilled craftsmen to emigrate to both India and Turkey, so that particularly close parallels to the paintings in Aḥmad Shah’s tomb are found in illuminations, bookbindings, and preparatory sketches from the court of the Ottoman sultan Moḥammad II (855-86/1451-81; Necipoğlu, p. 138 fig. 1; Raby and Tanındı, pp. 53, 59-60, figs. 55-59).

A new phase in artistic links between Persia and the Deccan was apparent during the third quarter of the 15th century, when Persian features appeared in both funerary and palatial architecture. Examples include the tombs of ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Aḥmad Shah II Bahmanī (d. 862/1458) and that of Neʿmat-Allāh’s son and successor, Ḵalīl-Allāh (d. 864/1460; Merklinger, 1981, p. 16 no. 52, figs. 9, 162, 175, pl. 10), as well as several sections of the Bīdar citadel. Persian features include the framing of arches with twisted-rope moldings and revetments in both mosaic faience and polychrome-painted tiles. The plan of Ḵalīl-Allāh’s tomb, with a two-story octagonal screen around an open center and vaulted recesses in each side wall, is based on the design of garden pavilions like the namakdān at the shrine of ʿAbd-Allāh Anṣārī near Herat. A carved stone inscription over the main doorway was signed by a certain Moḡīṯ Qārī Šīrāzī (Golombek, pp. 70-71, figs. 142-43; Yazdani, pp. 141-44; Merklinger, 1981, no. 55, pp. 16, 104, 114, fig. 13, pl. 11). Traces of ceramic tiles on the exterior resemble better-preserved revetments on the square domed tomb of ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn, where a large inscription in white ṯolṯ (see CALLIGRAPHY) against a blue ground encircles the structure and panels of repeating floral ornament are arranged in vertical strips and horizontal panels (Yazdani, pp. 130-32, pls. LXXVI-LXXVII; Merk-linger, 1981, no. 52, pp. 5, 95, figs. 9, 175, plan 10; Crowe, 1986a, pp. 86, 91; idem, 1986b, p. 44, figs. 6, 9-10).

The citadel at Bīdar contains structures with tile decorations founded by various Bahmanid and Barīdšāhī rulers. Those tile decorations closest in style and technique to the revetments at ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn’s tomb are panels set into the walls of a columned audience hall and adjacent chambers, probably erected in the 1460s (Yazdani, pp. 62-65, pls. XXIII, XXVII-XXIX). Like the earlier paintings at Aḥmad Shah’s tomb these designs belong to a widely disseminated artistic vocabulary of Persian origin (Necipoğlu, pp. 137-38, figs. 1, 8; Raby and Tanındı, pp. 53-60, figs. 56, 62-63; Beattie, p. 23, fig. 67). Technical features of the Bīdar tiles suggest that they were produced from locally available materials by craftsman trained in Persia but assisted by local workers; unfortunately, perhaps because local materials were not suitable for glazing, many tiles have lost their glazing, so that the original designs are also largely lost (Crowe, 1986b, pp. 44-45).

The continued attraction of the Deccan for Persians was also demonstrated by the career of Maḥmūd Gāvān, a native of Gīlān, who came as a merchant to Dabol in 856/1453, entered the service of ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Aḥmad II, rose to become wakīl (chief minister) and malek-al-tojjār (chief of the merchants’ guild) under Homāyūn (862-65/1458-61), and continued to serve the Bahmanids until his death in 886/1481. During his years in India Maḥmūd maintained an active correspondence with leading figures of Timurid Persia. Sultan Ḥosayn Bāyqarā (Suppl.) is even said to have invited him to join his court (Sherwani, p. 229). The Russian merchant Athanasius Nikitin, who spent several months in Bīdar in about 876/1471, described Maḥmūd as “a Khorassanian boyar” and commented “Khorassanians rule the country and serve in war” (p. 14). It is thus appropriate that it was Maḥmūd who sponsored the most strikingly Timurid of all Bīdar buildings, a madrasa (religious school) completed in 877/1472. This structure, now partially destroyed, once had an entrance facade marked by a central vaulted portal, corner minarets, and a courtyard surrounded by three stories of chambers, with a central ayvān on each side. The height and pierced-stone window screens reflect local taste, but the basic plan and the scheme of the tile revetments have numerous close parallels in Timurid architecture (Yazdani, pp. 91-100, pls. L-LVI; Merklinger, 1976-77). The plan has particularly close analogies to that of the Timurid madrasa at Ḵargerd in Khorasan (846/1442; O’Kane, pp. 211-15 no. 22, figs. 22.1-2). The exterior tile revetments include a well-executed inscription signed by ʿAlī Ṣūfī. Details of the vaults, which include moqarnas (oversailing courses of niche sections set at angles to one another) in the transition zone, also suggest the presence of a Persian craftsman (Merklinger, 1981, no. 61, pp. 78, 102, 104-05, 115, figs. 129, 179, 182).

Successor dynasties. Only a few years after Maḥmūd Gāvān’s death the Bahmanid state dissolved into five smaller kingdoms, but some aspects of his cultural legacy continued. Later Deccani architecture includes no exact replicas of the plan of his madrasa, but simplified versions of the entrance facade did appear as a kind of grand portal. The most striking instances are at burial complexes, or dargāhs, near Golbarga, associated with important Sufis, in particular the Češtī saint Moḥammad Bandanavāz Gīsūderāz (d. 825/1422) and Serāj-al-Dīn Jonaydī (d. 781/1380), spiritual guide of the first Bahmanid rulers (Sherwani, pp. 33, 82; Merklinger, 1981, pp. 108, 110 no. 19, plan 13). The entrance to Jonaydī’s tomb, known as Šayḵ Rawża, is a two-story version of the facade at the Bīdar madrasa, complete with central ayvān and corner minarets; it stands like a stage set in front of a much smaller nine-domed building (Merklinger, 1981, plan 13, fig. 43). In the Gīsūderāz complex a three-story version of the madrasa facade was placed in front of an earlier, lower house (Merklinger, 1981, fig. 44 top). Both these facades were probably erected in the early 16th century under the patronage of another native of Persia, Yūsof ʿĀdelšāh, a close associate of Maḥmūd Gāvān and progenitor of the ʿĀdelšāhī dynasty (Merklinger, 1981, p. 41).

The main innovations in Deccani architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries were either permutations of local traditions or reflections of Mughal practice. Decorative or structural elements of Persian origin, which had first appeared in mid-15th-century Bahmanid monuments at Bīdar, were integrated into the vocabulary of local craftsmen and continued in sporadic use until the Mughal conquest. That portals derived from the facade of the Bīdar madrasa continued to be associated with Sufi dargāhs is evident from the 17th-century Rawża at Afżalpūr (Merklinger, 1981, p. 91, fig. 159). In the Bīdar citadel tile revetements appeared on the facades of a gateway known as the Šarza Darvāza, dated to 909/1503, and a pavilion in the Taḵt Maḥall, probably of similar date (Yazdani, pp. 32-34, 66-74, pls. XXXI-XXXVII).

Persian craftsmen seem also to have been employed by the most powerful Barīdšāhī ruler, ʿAlī (949-87/1542-80). His tomb, completed in 984/1576, is notable for its garden setting; the inscriptions, executed in ceramic tile, were signed by Ḵᵛājagī Šīrvānī and ʿAbd-al-Fattāḥ. ʿAlī’s name is also linked with the Rangīn Maḥall, an apartment in the Bīdar citadel faced with ceramic-tile revetments in a Persian style (Yazdani, pp. 44-49, 151-59, pls. VIII-XIV, XCV).

Tombs built by the Qoṭbšāhī rulers at Golconda also retain traces of ceramic-tile revetments, but it is the royal ʿĀšūr-ḵāna at Hyderabad, used both for Moḥarram ceremonies and for storing such ritual paraphernalia as the standards (ʿalam</em>s; see ʿALAM VA ʿALĀMAT) carried in processions, that provides the clearest evidence of an artistic link with Persia. Three walls of this structure are faced with mosaic faience, with floral decoration in a Safavid style. Other features of the tiles show accommodation to local traditions, however, notably renditions of ritual ʿalams bearing religious texts and embellished with finials. There are also calligraphic cartouches in the “ṭoḡrā style” containing prayers and the names and titles of two Qoṭbšāhī rulers, Moḥammadqolī (988-1021/1580-1612) and ʿAbd-Allāh (1035-83/1626-72). Dates on the tiles range from 1001/1593 to 1005/1596, though there were probably subsequent additions (Bilgrami, pp. 21-25; Safrani; Crowe, 1986a, p. 31, fig. 6). Although these tiles contain no calligrapher’s signature, an inscription dated 1007/1597 in the Hyderabad congregational mosque is signed by Ḥosayn b. Moḥammad Faḵḵār Šīrāzī, who may have been both a potter and a calligrapher (James, 1987, pp. 345-46).

Illustrated and illuminated manuscripts.

In India the production of books was closely associated with the spread of Islam, and, according to the sources, there were substantial libraries in the Deccan during the 15th and 16th centuries, probably containing both imported and locally produced volumes (Sherwani, pp. 203-04; Skelton, pp. 98-99; Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 61, 68). Recently two illustrated manuscripts have been attributed to Bahmanid Bīdar, a copy of Ferdowsī’s Šāh-nāma dated 841/1438 (British Library, London, ms. no. Or. 1403; Rieu, Persian Manuscripts II, pp. 534-35) and a two-volume anthology of the Ḵamsas of Neẓāmī and Amīr Ḵosrow Dehlavī dated 840/1436, now in The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Persian ms. no. 124; Wilkinson, I, pp. 45-53). The Šāh-nāma, which once belonged to Charles Mohl and was used in his edition of the text, has been linked to India through unusual features of both text and illustrations; it may have been produced for a member of the Češtīya order, though no specific connection with Bīdar has been established. A note in the anthology documents its purchase by ʿĀdelšāh in 920/1514; the ascription to Bahmanid patronage rests on similarities between its paintings and tile decoration at Bīdar (Brend).

After the fall of the Bahmanids the Nēẓāmšāhīs of Ahmadnagar, the ʿĀdelšāhīs of Bījāpūr, and the Qoṭbšāhīs of Golconda sponsored the production of paintings and illuminated manuscripts. Their patronage was sporadic, however, and appears to have reflected the divergent interests of individual rulers. Most Deccani paintings of the period show a mixture of Persian and Indian features, but there is considerable variation among them. Artistic activity in these media reached its highest level during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, shortly before these states were absorbed into the Mughal empire.

Neẓāmšāhīs.At Ahmadnagar, which fell to the Mughal army in 1008/1600, the best-documented illustrated manuscript is a copy of Āftābī’s Taʿrīf-e ḥosaynšāhī, composed and illustrated at the court of Ḥosayn Neẓāmšāh I (961-73/1553-65), now in the Bhrata Iltihasa Samshodaka Mandala, Poona. Both the Persian text and the illustrations commemorate the splendors of Ḥosayn’s court and his role in the victory of the Deccani Muslim rulers over the Hindu ruler of Vijayanagra in 973/1565. In the twelve illustrations landscape and architectural settings of Persian derivation are combined with a figure style borrowed from earlier Sultanate painting, like that produced at Mandu in Malwa ( (Losty, pp. 53-54; Barrett, 1958, pp. 8-9, pl. 12; Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 17-19).

ʿĀdelšāhīs. A different blend of Persian and Indian elements appears in the compendium Nojūm al-ʿolūm, an anonymous text on cosmology, astronomy, astrology, and animal lore dated to 978/1570-71 and said to have belonged to the library of Ebrāhīm ʿĀdelšāh II (988-1037/1580-1627) in Bījāpūr; most of it is now in The Chester Beatty Library (Indian ms. no. 2; Arnold, pp. 2-4; Binney, no. 117, pp. 141-47). Some compositions exhibit Persian conventions in both setting and figure style, while others contain figures clearly Indian in dress and posture. There are also depictions of local royal customs. In one scene a figure in Persian dress is carried on a litter by both Muslim and Hindu attendants, a form of royal travel described in detail by Nikitin (pp. 9, 12, 14; Losty, no. 50, pp. 53, 71-72). In another painting a ruler of Vijayanagra is enthroned on a multileveled structure known as the “throne of prosperity” (Barrett and Gray, pp. 117, 120-21). The specific mixture of Hindu and Muslim customs depicted in this text suggests that it too commemorates the victory of 973/1565.

Three of the ʿĀdelšāhī rulers at Bījāpūr are remembered for their interest in both painting and Persian culture. Esmāʿīl (916-41/1510-34) was himself a skilled painter, musician, and poet. His enthusiasm for Persian culture and language was combined with a disdain for local customs and Dakhani Urdu. His relations with the Safavid ruler Shah Esmāʿīl I (907-30/1501-24) were particularly cordial, and his courtiers even adopted the Safavid tāj (turban). Esmāʿīl’s preference for both Shiʿism and Persian culture was emulated by his grandson ʿAlī I (965-88/1558-80), who is said to have had an extensive library, as well as a workshop of nearly sixty people producing books (Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 60-61). The cumulative effects of this patronage of manuscripts are also evident in the reign of ʿAlī’s successor, Ebrāhīm II, who in 1009/1601 was obliged to send to the Mughal emperor Akbar (963-1014/1556-1605) a gift of 2,000 books from the royal collection, many of which were illustrated (Zebrowski, 1983, p. 67-68).

Ebrāhīm, the most celebrated Deccani patron of the arts, is said to have been himself a painter and skilled calligrapher, who appreciated the work of artists of various origins. One painter, Farroḵ Ḥosayn, is listed among his intimates (Zebrowski, 1981, pp. 171-73, 179; idem, 1983, pp. 68-70). Ebrāhīm is also said to have given refuge to the Dutch painter Cornelius Heda, who was shipwrecked in India on his way to the court of Shah ʿAbbās I (996-1038/1588-1629) at Isfahan (Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 95-96). The paintings that have been securely linked with Ebrāhīm ʿĀdelšāh are idealized single-page portraits of him now scattered among various public and private collections; they show him in opulent court dress silhouetted against a lush landscape, riding an elephant, or playing music, themes consonant with the tone of his own musical treatise, Ketāb-e nowras (Skelton; Knižkova; Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 69-76). The style of these paintings is an amalgam of Persian, Indian, and European features. The fundamental scheme, with faces shown in three-quarter view and landscapes with high horizons, is Persian, but in the volumetric treatment of human figures the soft, rounded contours used in portraits from Ahmadnagar were combined with a precision of shading derived from European art. Vibrant colors and a sense of rhythm add to the sensuous effect (Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 76-103). Under Ebrāhīm’s successors portraits were affected by the more austere canon in vogue at the Mughal court (Zebrowski, 1981, pp. 174-82; idem, 1983, pp. 139-52).

Qoṭbšāhīs. Although the most accomplished Deccani paintings were produced at the ʿĀdelšāhī court in Bījāpūr, it was the Qoṭbšāhīs of Golconda and Hyderabad who manifested the greatest enthusiasm for Persian calligraphy, illumination, and painting. Their dedicatory inscriptions or seals are found on manuscripts that would otherwise have been assumed to be of Persian provenience. Several can be linked with Ebrāhīm Qoṭbšāh (957-88/1550-80) or his successor Moḥammadqolī Qoṭbšāh. One Shirazī scribe and illuminator, ʿAbd-al-Qāder Ḥosaynī, evidently emigrated to Golconda, where he copied and illuminated several manuscripts of the Koran for the Qoṭbšāhīs. The earliest, which bears a waqf (endowment) dedication of 970/1562-63 in the name of Ebrāhīm, is now in the library of Āstān-e Qods-e Rażawī, Mašhad. All these manuscripts contain illuminations in the gold-and-blue style typical of 16th-century Shiraz, but the inclusion of unusual colors and the use of an Indian system of verse counts reveal their Deccani origin (James, 1992, pp. 196-98 no. 47; Sotheby’s, pp. 20-24 lot 17). Another scribe, Bābā Mīrak Herātī, copied Esmāʿīl b. Ḥosayn Jorjānī’s Ḏaḵīra-ye ḵᵛārazmšāhī at Golconda in 980/1572; this manuscript, now in The Chester Beatty Library (uncatalogued Indian ms. no. 30), contains illuminations in a purely Persian style (Losty, p. 70 no. 47; Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 156-57, fig. 120).

Even more striking is the Safavid style of illumination and illustration in the Urdu and Persian Kollīyat of Moḥammadqolī Qoṭbšāh, now in the Salar Jang Museum, Hyderabad. The illuminations resemble those of the Ḏaḵīra of 980/1572, and the paintings appear to be the work of two different Persian painters, one of whom included figures wearing turbans in the Safavid style. Again details of execution like the color scheme and the use of marbled paper affirm the Deccani origin of the paintings (Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 158-69, figs. 121-22; idem, 1986, figs. 13 and facing p. 1). The scribe of the Hyderabad Kollīyat, Zayn-al-Dīn ʿAlī Šīrāzī, also prepared other manuscripts for Moḥam-madqolī, including an album now in The Chester Beatty Library (Persian ms. no. 225; Wilkinson, III, p. 5, pl. 6; James, 1987), in which examples of calligraphy and painting from Persia are combined with those produced in the Deccan; the calligraphy includes pieces signed by Moḥammad-Reżā and Moḥammad Šīrāzī and cut-paper work by Morād Ḏu’l-Qadr.

During the reign of ʿAbd-Allāh Qoṭbšāh a new, hybrid style of painting, in which Indian and Persian elements were mingled, was developed. The ruler and his court are depicted in several paintings, five inserted in an earlier Persian copy of the Dīvān of Ḥāfeẓ (ms. no. 1974.6-17[1-5], formerly part of Add. 16762), and another single-page painting, all now in the British Museum, London. In the Ḥāfeẓ paintings courtiers rendered in the Persian fashion are juxtaposed with servants and entertainers in a style reminiscent of earlier Sultanate painting (Barrett, 1960; Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 178-80). In the single sheet (no. 1937.4-1001) the ruler and his officials are portrayed in the profile view characteristic of Mughal portraits, whereas attendants or servants are depicted in three-quarter view, a combination that demonstrates the growing importance of Mughal contacts and the waning prestige of the Safavid style; these trends were intensified in subsequent reigns (Zebrowski, 1983, pp. 178-88).