A Sufi Ritual

By a sub-imperial Mughal artist,
circa 1620-30 A.D.

Opaque watercolour and gold on paper

100 by 200 mm.; 4 by 7 7/8 in.

A Sufi master is controlling a sama' or Sufi ritual concerned with the recitation of verses from the Qur’an or devotional poetry, in India often associated with music and dance. The pir or master himself sits on a floor-spread supported by the bolster in front of him and has been reading from the qur’an on the book stand. He is apparently in a trance as suggested by his turban being askew. A youthful disciple fans him with a scarf. One of the disciples while listening to the beat of the daf or large tambourine has fallen into a mystical trance and fainted but is being supported by a companion. His fallen book lies on the ground. The onlookers on the left are clearly amazed at what is going on.

Mughal artists seem to have associated Sufi dervishes with Persian or Central Asian costume in general (long-sleeved coats worn over jamas and round turbans) as can be seen in a picture of dancing dervishes done for Jahangir circa 1610 (Barrett and Gray, p. 101), or others from the Shah Jahan period (Falk and Archer, nos. 90, 94). The youthful daf player on the other hand is wearing a Deccani turban although the rest of his costume is Central Asian. Other Deccani traits in the picture include the screen of delicate flowers at the bottom of the picture and the flowing lines of the scarf worn by the man talking to the pir (cf. Zebrowski, fig. 51).

It is not clear which of the Sufi orders our dervishes belong to. It is unlikely to be Naqshbandi Sufi order, members of which went to India and especially the Deccan from Central Asia, since this order normally practices the dhikr or recitation of the names of God from the qur’an in silence. The ecstatic dervishes in the painting attributed to Muhammad Nadir al-Samarqandi (Falk and Archer, no. 90) seem to have reached their ecstasy without benefit of music.

While it is not unknown for Mughal artists to leave out a horizon, the very high viewpoint of this painting would seem to preclude one, rather than having been cut down to fit within the present mount.

Provenance

Private collection, France

References

Barrett, D., and Gray, B., Indian Painting, Geneva, 1978
Falk, T., and Archer, M., Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981
Zebrowski, M., Deccani Painting, London, 1983