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Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza)

c. 1560s–70s

Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on cotton and paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Page: 83.7 x 67 cm (32 15/16 x 26 3/8 in.)
Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Gift of George P. Bickford
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

About this work

The hero, Alamshah the Greek, perches on a cliff above a rushing torrent of water. He has just slain the villain who raised the massive bronze plug on the dam in order to wash away the camp of Alamshah’s father, Hamza.

The Hamza-nama recounts the adventures of an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. It was the first major undertaking of the fledgling painting workshop created by Akbar. Originally in 14 volumes of 100 illustrations each, just a little more than 10 percent of the pages survive.