A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s1.86

c20.s1.86

The Persian kings admired European art, and deliberately sought to introduce its methods into their country. During the residence of Sir Robert Sherley at the Persian court, sometime about A.D. 1606, Shāh Abbās I (1587–1629) sent to Rome a party of students, one of whom became a Christian and published a book under the name of Don John of Persia. Shāh Abbās II (1642–67) repeated the experiment and dispatched a second party. One of these, by name Muhammad Zamān, also was converted, and returned to Persia as a Christian under the name of Paolo Zamān. Having been obliged to quit his native land, he obtained in India the protection of Shahjahān, who granted him, with other exiled Persians, allowances as a *mansabdār* in Kashmīr. Early in Aurangzēb's reign all the Persian refugee *mansabdārs* were summoned to court for the verification of their grants, and on that occasion, about A.D. 1660, Manucci made the acquaintance of Muhammad or Paolo Zamān, who avowed his Christian profession, while continuing to live in the ordinary Musalman manner. The three Europeanized pictures in B.M. Or. 2265 evidently are from his brush.