Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c20.49

c20.49

Of a different type, but containing much that is of the same quality as the last, is what purports to be a portrait of Akbar’s poet laureate, Faizi, reproduced on Plate LXI, Fig. 2. Faizi died in his fiftieth year, and the person here depicted appears to be considerably older, but he was always a delicate man, a sufferer from asthma, which may have aged him before his time. The poet and his brother Abu’l Fazl, whose chapter on painting has been so freely quoted in these pages, were close friends and advisers of Akbar, and exercised considerable influence over their imperial master in many ways. Both were free-thinkers, a condition which suited Akbar very well at the time when he was evolving his ‘Divine Faith’, and were strong supporters of his unorthodox views. Faizi himself was a profound scholar, very broad-minded, and one of the first Muham-madans to apply himself to a diligent study of Hindu literature. He translated and adapted several Sanskrit works in poetry and philosophy, besides being the author of a great deal of original poetry and of other writings in Persian. Whether the picture here presented substantiates its claim to be his likeness or not, it is a remarkable drawing, and shows the Mughal delineator at his best.