"Hamza's Heroes Fight in Support of Qasim and Badi'uzzaman", Folio from a Hamzanama (The Adventures of Hamza)

Hamza's Heroes Fight in Support of Qasim and Badi'uzzaman

For reasons unknown, a brawl has broken out, suddenly pitting Badi'uzzaman, Hamza's son, against Malik Qasim, the king of the west. Qasim is normally a loyal ally, and elsewhere (MAK, Vienna, B.I. 8770/50, cat. 42 in this volume) risks everythig to rescue—or perhaps to outdo—Badi'uzzaman. But Qasim can never hold his fiery nature completely in check, and regularly succumbs to hot-headed outbursts, a habit that earns him the epithet 'the quick-tempered bloodshedder.' The text that follows refers to this episode only in the most tangential way. As Qasim emerges from this place of unexpected strife, he gazes upon a magnificent fortress; opposite it is a tree with a wondrous throne at its base. Sitting on the throne and basking in its splendor, he reflects ruefully upon the day's events, the stinging words of Hamza and Badi'uzzaman resounding in his ears, and mutters mordantly, 'You see that in the end this Arab took the part of his own son.'

In the painting the two rivals grapple with each other in a tiled courtyard swarming with fiesty participants and alarmed onlookers. The composition is organized by standard means: an elevated throne rests at the center of a hexagonal platform covered by an elaborate canopy. Six poles mark the perimeter of the platform on two sides. This arrangement has the virtue of neatly framing Badi'uzzaman and Qasim, but also causes the designer to skew the hexagonal platform quite radically. This distortion is tempered on the right by another throneback and several encrouching figures, and ultimately weighs little in a composition of such pervasive architectural symmetry and figural balance.

Unlike MMA 18.44.1, this illustration does convey a sense of fury. Badi'uzzaman and Qasim lunge at each other, each wielding a dagger with deadly intent. To their left, two equally oversized opponents carry on in the same manner, one trying to slash his assailant with a huge dagger while the other viciously grabs hold of his ears. In the lower right, three more pairs of foes attempt to throttle or impale each other. The centermost figure, identified as Umar Ma'dikarb by his sheer girth, has relinquished his mace to tear at his enemy's hair; Umar, standing at the lower left, uncharacteristically stays out of the fray.

Many decorative features of the scene, including the canopies, thrones, carpet, and tilework, can be attributed to Shravana; he even repeats elements as distinctive as the steel-grey coloring of the platform, a color also used exceptionally in the flaps of a tent in MMA 18.44.1. Dasavanta's hand is evident in the dramatically posed figures. particularly the two huge combatants on the left, Umar Ma'dikarb, and Umar. Although the faces of the two princes in the center have been lost to abrasion, the color of their turbans and the modeling of the orange also point to Dasavanta. The remaining figures have equally interesting expressions and hair, but most have smaller pupils, coarser eyebrows and facial hair, and more flatly rendered clothes than Dasavanta's types. These figures thus appear to be the work of Tara. The row of cypress trees arrayed agains a flat green ground is featured so often in Dasavanta's paintings that this passage must be credited to him as well.

John Seyller in [Seyler et al. 2002]

Lockwood de Forest (American), New York (until 1918; sold to MMA)

Mexico City. Colegio de San Ildefonso. "Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York," September 30, 1994–January 8, 1995, not in catalog.

Washington. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "The Adventures of Hamza," June 26, 2002–September 29, 2002, no. 83.

New York. Brooklyn Museum. "The Adventures of Hamza," November 1, 2002–January 26, 2003, no. 83.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "The Adventures of Hamza," March 15, 2003–June 8, 2003, no. 83.

Comstock, Helen, ed. "The Romance of Amir Hamzah." International Studio LXXX (1925). pp. 349–57, ill. pp. 352, 354 (b/w).

Seyller, John, Thackston M. Wheeler, Ebba Koch, Antoinette Owen, and Rainald Franz. The Adventures of Hamza. Washington, D.C.; London: Azimuth Editions, 2002. no. 83, pp. 246–47, 261, ill. (related) p. 311.

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. p. 7, ill. fig 9 (b/w).