Outer covers decorated with floral arabesques on dark ochre ground, scalloped medallions at the centre and wide borders with white cartouches containing floral motifs.

The interior covers depict a landscape scene incorporating two literary themes:

On the right (i.e. the inside front covers) are the protagonists of a popular 16th century historic love story, Baz Bahadur and Rani Rupmati, hunting blackbuck on horseback with bows and arrows. Baz Bahadur (‘Brave Falcon’) was the Muslim Sultan of Malwa in Central India, defeated by Emperor Akbar’s forces in 1561. Rani Rupmati, a Hindu Rajput princess, was his beautiful and talented wife. After Akbar’s general stormed Baz Bahadur’s palace at Mandu, Rani Rupmati committed suicide rather than marrying the invader. They are shown on horseback in a landscape beside the Narmada River.

On the left (i.e. inside back cover) is a seated woman wearing a plumed turban shooting blackbuck with a matchlock. She is Chand Bibi, the warrior queen who defended the Deccani fort of Ahmednagar from Akbar’s forces in 1595. The barrel of her matchlock rests in the fork of a small tree and her companion rests another matchlock on her knee while holding a flaming wick.

Both of the tales of Baz Bahadur and Rani Rupmati and Chand Bibi were popular themes of poetry and song in Hindustan in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and equally became favourite subjects for painters.

The incidental details depict women riding on horseback, fishing, roasting food and smoking hookahs.

Although the covers are unsigned, the refined painterly style suggests the work of one of Muhammad Shah’s leading masters.

For more information on this album see RCIN 1005068.