Sultan Mohammad () was an Iranian painter at the
Safavid court in
Tabriz
Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...
under Shah
Ismail I
Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...
() and Shah
Tahmasp I (). He served as the director of Shah
Ismail's artists’ workshop
and as the first project director of the
''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp. He gave painting lessons to
Tahmasp when he was the crown prince.
Sultan Mohammad’s style was initially based in the Turkman courtly idiom.
Sheila R. Canby writes that around 1515, he was perfecting scenes of “man and animal inhabiting a natural world of roaring winds, lush and frenzied vegetation and rocks resembling grotesque faces”,
of which his painting “Rustam Sleeping while Rakhsh Fights a Lion” from an unfinished ''
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...
'' is an example. In the 1520s however, Sultan Mohammad was influenced by the more sedate and subtle late
Timurid mode practiced at
Herat
Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...
; his compositions became more orderly and architectonic.
Sultan Mohammad’s painting “The Court of Gayumars” is widely considered the “crowning achievement” of the
''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp.
It has been estimated that the artist worked on the painting for three years.
In 1544,
Dust Muhammad
Dust Muhammad (or Doust Muhammad) was a Persian painter of miniatures, calligrapher, and art historian, active from about 1510 to 1564. Later in life he worked in India.
Early career
Dust Muhammad was born in Herat in the late 15th century, al ...
described it as “such that the lion-hearted of the jungle of depiction and the leopards and crocodiles of the workshop of ornamentation quail at the fangs of his pen and bend their necks before the awesomeness of his pictures,” making it one of the few individual paintings to be referenced in any sixteenth century text.
Other than the
''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp, Sultan Mohammad may have contributed to an illustrated manuscript of the ''Story of Jamal and Jalal'' of Muhammad Asafi that was copied by the scribe Sultan Ali Qayini in 1502–3 at
Herat
Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...
but then travelled west.
He was also among the few distinguished artists to contribute to an illustrated manuscript of the
''Khamseh'' of Nizami that was copied by the scribe
Shah Mahmud of Nishapur at
Tabriz
Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...
and produced between 1539 and 1543.
Furthermore, he decorated the borders of many other fine
Safavid manuscripts.
Sultan Mohammad was a native of
Tabriz
Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...
.
He was the father of the artist
Mirza Ali, who also contributed to the
''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp, and the grandfather of the painter and illuminator Mir Zayn al-'Abidin, who was active in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.
He died before 1555.
British Museum
This painting is attributed to Sultan Muhammad.
Aga Khan Museum
The painting is attributed to Sultan Mohammad.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The painting is attributed to Sultan Mohammad.
File:"Tahmuras Defeats the Divs", Folio 23v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp MET DT11223.jpg, link=, "Tahmuras Defeats the Divs", Folio 23v from the ''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp; c. 1525; opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper; painting is 28.3 cm (height) x 18.6 cm (width), entire page is 47 cm (height) by 32.1 cm (width); th
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The painting is attributed to Sultan Mohammad.
File:"Zahhak is Told His Fate", Folio 29v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp MET DP107120.jpg, link=, "Zahhak is Told His Fate", Folio 29v from the ''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp; c. 1524; opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper; painting is 18.7 cm (height) x 32.9 cm (width), entire page is 31.9 cm (height) x 47 cm (width); th
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The painting is attributed to Sultan Mohammad.
References
{{authority control
Iranian miniature painters
16th-century Iranian painters