A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c18.101

c18.101

The Persian MSS. purporting to give the history of the Tāj, the names of the chief artists and artificers, and the cost of the buildings, appear to exhibit many discrepancies in details, but to agree in stating that the chief designer and draughtsman was ‘Ustād (or Master) Īsā’, otherwise called Muhammad Īsā Effendi, who drew a salary of ₨. 1,000 a month, and was assisted by his son, Muhammad Sharīf. The Agra copy, in the possession of the hereditary custodians of the monument, says that he came from ‘Rūm’, interpreted to mean Turkey or Constantinople, and that his son came from Samarkand. Other copies are alleged to assert that the Ustād came from Shīrāz in Persia. The title ‘Effendi’ sometimes given to him is an Ottoman one. No details of his life seem to be on record.