India: A scene from the Hamzanama. Div carries a chest of armour through the waters to Hamza, under the supervision of Samad. Mughal painting.

The Hamzanama or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza (Adventures of Amir Hamza) narrates the mythical exploits of Amir Hamza, the uncle of the prophet of Islam. Most of the story is extremely fanciful, memorably described by the first Moghul Emperor Babur as: 'one long far-fetched lie, opposed to sense and nature'. Yet the Hamzanama proved enduringly popular with Babur's grandson, the third Mughal Emperor Akbar, who commissioned a magnificent illustrated version of the epic in c.1562, from which this miniature is taken. The text augmented the story, as traditionally told in dastan performances. This romance originated more than 1,000 years ago, probably in Persia, and subsequently spread throughout the Islamic world in oral and written forms. The Dastan (story telling tradition) about Amir Hamza persists far and wide up to Bengal and Arakan (Burma) due to Hamza's supposedly widespread travelling in Persia, eastern India, the Himalayas, Bengal, Manipur, Burma and perhaps Malaysia in his youth, or before he embraced Islam in 616.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History

Theme:

Mughal Empire,