Cleveland Museum of Art

Husain Ali Khan Entertaining His Brothers (The Sayyid Brothers)

Date

c. 1712–19

Medium

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Culture

India, Mughal Dynasty (1526-1756)

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The shrewd imperial oligarch smoking the hookah and his brothers ran the Mughal government after the death of Emperor Alamgir in 1707 until the rise of Emperor Muhammad Shah in 1719. They were ruthless, self-serving kingmakers who caused the assassinations and accessions of six different members of the royal family to the Mughal throne in Delhi. The two attendants behind him exchange a worried glance, and the rare use of a flat gray sky behind the white marble terrace suggests the artist’s mood about the future strength and prosperity of the empire. The man shown smoking a hookah is the Mughal imperial ruler.

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