The vizier dissuades the king of Bahilistan from executing the dervish who asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh Night, c. 1560
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The vizier dissuades the king of Bahilistan from executing the dervish who asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh Night

c. 1560

Medium
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 14 x 9.9 cm (5 1/2 x 3 7/8 in.)
Culture
Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A poor dervish, wearing a fur cap and short brown lower garment, stands captive before the furious king of Bahilistan. Before he can kill the dervish, a vizier reminds him that it is beneath a king to stain his sword with the blood of a mendicant. The dervish is ordered to prove his worth by offering the king’s daughter an elephant laden with gold.