The siege of Arbela in the era of Hulagu Khan, from a Chingiz-nama (Book of Chingiz Khan) of the Jami al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) of Rashid al-Din (Persian,1247–1318) c. 1596 Part of a set. See all set records Sur Das Gujarati (Indian, active 16th century) Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600) India, Mughal, 16th century, made for Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper Image: 34 x 20 cm (13 3/8 x 7 7/8 in.); Overall: 38.5 x 25 cm (15 3/16 x 9 13/16 in.); with mat: 49 x 36.3 cm (19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in.) Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1947.502 DID YOU KNOW? The lord of the citadel in blue is negotiating its surrender to the Mongol general, who rides the white horse in the lower right. DESCRIPTION Akbar, the third Mughal emperor of India, commissioned an illustrated copy of the Chingiz-nama, a historical text written in Persian during the early 1300s by a Jewish scholar who converted to Islam. The Chingiz-nama is an account of the conquests of Akbar’s ancestors, the Mongols, who swept across the Asian continent from Siberia to the Mediterranean Sea during the 1200s. This page describes the final momentous defeat of the caliph of Baghdad, the religious head of Sunni Islam and political leader of the Abbasid dynasty, with the names of all the caliphs who came before him listed in red at the top.