An East African King Receives Three Emissaries, from a Khamsa of Amir Khusrau Dihlavi

Amir Khusrau Dedicates His Poem to Sultan Ala al-Din Khalji, page from the Quintet (Khamsa) of Amir Khusraw Dehlavi

Unknown Artist

The third suitor strikes the devotee’s daughter and thus restores her to life, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twentieth Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The prince and Nikfal are joined by Khalis and the Mukhlis who are the grateful snake and frog in human form, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighteenth Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The pious man’s son, now a king, reveals himself to his father; his nurse upbraids his unfaithful mother, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The three suitors again begin to quarrel among themselves for the hand of the devotee’s daughter, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twentieth Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The magic parrot of the merchant talks to the vizier’s son, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Tenth Night

Lalu

The young man, who has magically taken on the appearance of Mansur the merchant, arrives at his home, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventeenth Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

King Bahram, who has married Khassa’s daughter, has her tied to a camel to be abandoned in the desert as a result of false accusations made by Khulasa, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-first Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The prince, once reprieved, is returned to the palace of execution a second time on the plea of the king’s handmaiden, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night

Gujarati

Rustam Takes Aim at Ashkabus, from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings)

Sultanate India, Deccan or Malwa

The court jester meets a Zangi dancing with joy, and learns from him that the cause of his happiness is his assignation with a woman who is the jester’s own wife, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twenty-second Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The prince, with the help of Mukhlis who changes into a frog, recovers the ring lost in the sea, and returns it to the king, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighteenth Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)