Mohammad Zaman

Mohammad Zaman was born in Kerman, Persia to Haji Yusuf, and received his education in Tabriz.^[2] For his great intelligence, he was sent by Shah Abbas II of Persia to Rome to study Italian painting, and there he converted to Christianity. In his conversion he took the name of Paul and became Paolo Zaman. When he returned to Persia he was forced to flee to India because of his Christianity. In India, he became a refugee, or mansabdar, and obtained the protection of the Mughul dynasty under the emperor Shah Jahan^[3] and later Dara Shikoh.

He lived mostly in Kashmir, but was invited to go to Dehli with other mansabdars by the Aurangzeb. In Dehli around the year 1660 CE, he met Niccolao Manucci, a Venetian traveler who wrote accounts of the Mughal rule. Mohammad Zaman returned to Persia around the years 1672-73 and embraced Islam once again. After re-establishing his reputation and making the Islamic pilgrimage, he received the title of "haji" like his father. He then worked in the city of Isfahan from 1675 to 1678.^[2]

Six of his paintings from 1678 to 1689 were of Biblical scenes. A painting of Judith with the severed head of Holofernes, currently in the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, is signed "Ya sahib al-zaman", one of the titles of the 12th Shia Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. Mohammad Zaman used this phrase in place of a signature, and on that basis the painting is attributed to him.^[16][17]

Mohammad Zaman favored night scenes, and his work combined multiple influences, drawing subjects from European paintings but with Mughal or Kashmiri stylistic touches.^[16] He introduced a European style to Safavid painting in manuscripts known as farangi-sazi.^[18] This style combines Persian iconography and compositional elements with more European elements, such as chiaroscuro, atmospheric effect, and “Western” perspective. The style could also be seen in his forest scenes, which include exaggerated forms, heavy contrasts between light and dark, and picturesque mountains and streams.^[9]

The Khamsa of Nizami, a manuscript of five poems by poet Nizami Ganjavi, is known for its Safavid illustrations—three of which are attributed to Mohammad Zaman. It has been suggested that he produced these paintings in the 17th century as additions to the original manuscript. It is also suggested that the paintings by Mohammad Zaman were inserted in the Khamsa of Nizami after being removed from somewhere else, as there is some damage to the upper sections. His signature and the date inscription can be found on two of the paintings, however all three resemble another painting attributed to Mohammad Zaman, "Majnun in the Wilderness."^[19]

Mohammad Zaman's depiction of the tale of Bahram Gur and the Indian Princess features wingless faeries, different from other depictions of the scene. The text adjacent to the image is a section of the Tale of the Indian Princess, which ends with a description of food and wine for a banquet in the King and Queen's pavilion. However, Mohammad Zaman's depiction does not include this pavilion scene, instead depicting King Turktazi and the Queen of the Faeries.^[9]

• Habibi, Negar (2021). "Farangi-Sazi". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
• Landau, Amy S. (2011). "From Poet to Painter: Allegory and Metaphor in a Seventeenth-Century Persian Painting by Muhammad Zaman, Master of Farangī-Sāzī". Muqarnas Online. 28 (1): 101–131. doi:10.1163/22118993-90000175.
• Melville, Charles, ed. (2021). Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires: The Idea of Iran Vol. 10. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0755633777.

• Media related to Muhammad Zaman at Wikimedia Commons