This is a page from the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), a lavishly illustrated manuscript commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556\u20131605) to document the history of his rule. The scene shows the emperor at age thirteen, three days after his accession. Seated on a gold throne on a carpeted platform, Akbar watches as his late father\u2019s favorite courtier is arrested for his insolent behavior toward the young emperor. The setting\u2014a tented encampment pitched in a garden\u2014is significant, for Akbar spent much of his reign on the move. Through his active campaigning and strong administrative skills, he expanded the Mughal Empire, securing and consolidating it for his successors. In addition, he was a great patron of the arts, initiating a new style of painting and establishing a vast atelier and library.<\/p>\n
One of the new themes the emperor encouraged was the painting of historical manuscripts such as the Akbarnama. Commissioned in 1589, it was written by court historian and biographer Abu\u2019l Fazl between 1590 and 1596. Simultaneously, a workshop of about fifty artists illustrated the text. Basawan, the designer of this painting, whose signature appears in the lower margin in red, was one of the studio\u2019s leading painters. He was particularly skilled in portraiture and is known to have painted the faces of the young emperor and the two other figures in front of him: the regent Bairam Khan, who is standing, and the disgraced courtier Shah Abu\u2019l-Ma\u2019ali, who crouches in a red robe. He also painted some of the nearby scenery. According to the signature, the rest of the painting was executed by Shankar, another prominent painter in Emperor Akbar\u2019s atelier. This painting is a prime example of the collaborative nature of the art of painting in Mughal workshops.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Image: 32 \u00d7 19.3 cm (12 5\/8 \u00d7 7 9\/16 in.); Outermost border: 33 \u00d7 19.6 cm (13 \u00d7 7 11\/16 in.); Page: 34.4 \u00d7 20 cm (13 1\/2 \u00d7 7 7\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":19,"height":32,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Image"},{"depth":null,"width":19,"height":33,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Outermost border"},{"depth":null,"width":20,"height":34,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Page"}],"medium_display":"Opaque watercolor and gold on paper","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":null,"exhibition_history":null,"provenance_text":null,"edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Basic","internal_department_id":8,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":64.0371,"color":{"h":41,"l":52,"s":90,"percentage":0.033571247684167034,"population":403},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of Asia","department_id":"PC-7","artist_id":100581,"artist_title":"Basawan","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[100581],"artist_titles":["Basawan"],"category_ids":["PC-7","PC-837"],"category_titles":["Arts of Asia","Arts of Asia 100"],"term_titles":["paper (fiber product)","painting (image making)","men","painting","Islamic (culture or style)","gold","mughal","watercolor","horses","animals","guns","swords","birds","asian art"],"style_id":"TM-13482","style_title":"Islamic (culture or style)","alt_style_ids":["TM-5452"],"style_ids":["TM-13482","TM-5452"],"style_titles":["Islamic (culture or style)","mughal"],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-26"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-26"],"classification_titles":["painting","asian art"],"subject_id":"TM-10121","alt_subject_ids":["TM-8804","TM-12218","TM-12303","TM-8884","TM-11211"],"subject_ids":["TM-10121","TM-8804","TM-12218","TM-12303","TM-8884","TM-11211"],"subject_titles":["men","horses","animals","guns","swords","birds"],"material_id":"TM-2982","alt_material_ids":["TM-2452","TM-2403"],"material_ids":["TM-2982","TM-2452","TM-2403"],"material_titles":["paper (fiber product)","gold","watercolor"],"technique_id":"TM-3891","alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["Arts of Asia 100"],"image_id":"c3c4fa77-ae12-1e5e-cc8a-0bde4f1be2ca","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu\u2019l-Maali, Page from a Manuscript of the Akbarnama","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1919.898"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu\u2019l-Maali, Page from a Manuscript of the Akbarnama"],"weight":5230,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-04-01T13:49:52-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-25T23:21:04-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:51:19-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}