A GATHERING OF SIX SUFI MASTERS
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
Murshidabad, West Bengal, North-Eastern India, ca. 1780 - 1800

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting a gathering of six Sufi masters, namely Khwaja Mu'in al-Din Chishti (1142 - 1236), Ghaus al-A'zam, Khwaja Qutb al-Din, Shaykh Mihr, Shah Sharaf Bu 'Ali Qalandar and Sultan-ul-Mashaikh (Musa Shaikh), five clad in white robes with polychrome shawls and overcoats and large turbans, the sixth painted in a light green robe without a turban looking away from the rest of the group, in the centre a stack of books symbolising their combined knowledge, the river bank in the background and the soft, muted palette typical of 18th-century Murshidabadi creations, mounted, glazed and framed, the painting 20cm x 13.5cm, 33cm x 25.5cm including the frame.

Provenance: Private Dutch Collection, purchased in Amsterdam.

The 'Six Sufi masters' gathering' became a prominent subject in Mughal paintings of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Several other Indian schools influenced by Mughal productions of this period started introducing the same subject in their repertoire, as evident by the numerous reproductions. For analogous compositions, please see The British Library collection (acc. no. Add.Or.4473) and the next lot in the present sale.