Sultan Muhammad

Born in the late 1470’s in Tabriz; died there 1555. Painter of miniatures; leading figure of the Tabriz school of miniature painting.

Sultan Muhammad, a student of Aga Mirak Isfahani, worked in the shah’s library and instructed Shah Tahmasp I in painting. Sultan Muhammad’s works include illustrations for manuscripts, for example, Hafez’ Divan (late 1520’s, Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Mass.), Ferdowsi’s (Firdausi’s) Shah-nameh (1526–27, private collection of A. A. Houghton, Cambridge, Mass.), and Nizami’s Khamseh (1539–43, British Museum, London), as well as individual miniatures, housed in the M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library in Leningrad. His miniatures are noted for their dynamic, refined harmony of composition, subtle coloring, and realistically expressive treatment of landscape and of the poses and gestures of people and animals. Sultan Muhammad also made numerous miniature portraits and carpet designs with hunting scenes, as well as jewelry and gombroon ware (a type of semiporcelain).