A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s1.9

c20.s1.9

The art of Mīrak is adequately represented by a signed picture (Fol. 166) in the magnificent manuscript of the *Khamsa-i-Nizāmī* written between a. d. 1539 and 1542 for Shah Tahmāsp, king of Persia, by Shah Muhammad Nīshāpurī, the first calligraphist of his age (B. M. Or. 2625). The subject comprises hills and forest, with leopards, and other animals. The landscape is purely formal and conventional, after the Mongol manner, but many of the beasts are well drawn and true to nature.