With the British Library exhibition Alexander the Great: The making of a Myth coming to a close, I would like to highlight one of my special favourites: the Emperor Akbar’s personal copy of Nizami’s Khamsah (Quintet) of which the fifth poem, the Iskandarnamah, is a two-part account of the life of Alexander the Great or Iskandar as he is called in Persian.

The priestess pleads with Iskandar to spare the sanctuary idol from destruction. Credit: Artists La'l and Mukund. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, ff.317v-318r) (Public Domain)

Commissioned by Akbar in Lahore between 1593 and 1595, this manuscript represents what was without doubt an intensely personal project and combines the work of the best artists at his court. With 37 highly original paintings, luxurious illumination, marginal decorations and binding, this Khamsah was one of a small group of deluxe Persian manuscripts which also include Jami’s Baharistan (Bodleian MS Elliott 254) and the Khamsah of Amir Khusraw (Walters Ms W 624), all produced around the same time in Lahore. In his monumental survey of 1912, the collector and art historian FR Martin wrote of it: “Without exception it is the most wonderful Indian manuscript in Europe.” Originally the manuscript contained 44 illustrations, but at some point 39 folios including five illustrated leaves, were extracted and are now in the Walters Art Museum Baltimore Walters Ms W 613. Two of the original paintings are now lost and an additional portrait of the calligrapher ʻAbd al-Raḥīm ʻAnbarīn Qalam and the artist Dawlat were added at the end in 1610 by order of Jahangir.

With 16 of the 44 illustrations devoted to the Iskandarnamah, it is easy to see Akbar’s special affinity with Alexander the Great. Nizami in the early 12th century was the first to qualify Iskandar (Iqbalnamah 29:4) with the adjective Sahib-qiran (Lord of the Conjunction)[1]. Several rulers styled themselves this way, most notably Akbar’s honoured ancestor Timur, founder of the Timurid dynasty in 1370[2]. Like Alexander, Akbar was a successful conqueror, but more particularly Nizami’s portrayal of Alexander as a philosopher-king would have appealed to Akbar who promoted himself as a just and tolerant ruler.

In the opening we used for the exhibition (see above) the double-page illustration has a special significance. Here we see Iskandar at a Buddhist sanctuary at Kandahar receiving an impassioned plea from the priestess who asks for the golden statue, with precious jewels as its eyes, to be left unharmed. Iskandar had ordered it to be dismantled but moved by her passion and beauty, he agreed to spare it. Placed right at at the end of the Khamsah, this painting has, as pointed out by Barbara Brend (Akbar’s Khamsa, p. 61), a special significance. Iskandar is compared by implication with the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) who had taken Kandahar from the Safavids of Iran without bloodshed in April 1595, while this manuscript was still in the process of completion. Akbar’s interest in other religions apart from Islam, exemplified by the establishment of his own syncretic faith, the Din-i ilahi (Divine Faith) in 1582, parallels here Iskandar’s own role as a tolerant philosopher-king.

Sadly, in the exhibition we could only display one opening from each manuscript, so to give a flavour of the whole volume, I have described some further examples here.

Iskandar with Nushabah, queen of the women-only city of Barda, in today’s Azerbaijan. Iskandar had visited the queen in disguise, but she immediately revealed him as an imposter by presenting him with his own portrait which she had had painted earlier. Reprimanding him, she nevertheless forgave him and they feasted together before he went on his way. Credit: Artist, Bhura. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f. 244v) (Public Domain)
Not wishing to go to war, King Kayd of Hind offered Iskandar four gifts as tribute: his daughter in marriage, his all-knowing philosopher, his personal physician and his never-emptying goblet. This scene shows his envoy's reception at Iskandar's camp. Iskandar was pleased to accept Kayd's gifts and bloodshed was avoided. Credit: Artist, Dharamdas. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f. 254r) (Public Domain)
The story of Mani the 3rd-century founder of Manichaeism, who was also famous as an artist, is told as an interlude in a contest between the artists of China and Rum. Hearing that the prophet Mani was on his way to China, the Chinese, to discourage him, created a false reservoir out of crystal, When the thirsty Mani placed his earthenware drinking vessel on it, it broke. To prevent others from doing the same, Mani got out his tools and painted a realistic dead dog on the surface. Through this action and his wisdom, Mani made many converts. Credit: Artist, Sur Gujarati. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f.262v) (Public Domain)
As Iskandar’s power and dominions increased, so too did his preoccupation with dying. Searching for immortality, his journey led him into the Land of Darkness in an unsuccessful search for the Water of Life. Nizami gives three different accounts of the search for the Water of Life, which he refers to as Zoroastrian, Byzantine, and Arab versions. Pictured here is the so-called Zoroastrian version in which Iskandar gave the prophet Khizr his grey horse – a gift from the ruler of Chin – and sent him into the Darkness with a special stone which would light up and reveal the fountain. Khizr located it and drank and washed himself and the horse, but when they had finished, the fountain disappeared. Credit: Artist, Kanak Singh Chela. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f.281r) (Public Domain)
This illustration come in the 'Iqbalnamah', the second of the two books of the 'Iskandarnamah', which describes Iskandar's prophetic mission. In this episode, after solitary reflection in a barrel (echoes of Diogenes) Aflatun (Plato) obtained full comprehension of the music of the spheres and created an instrument whereby he could make all animals sleep and then rouse them again to consciousness. The scene itsef is reminiscent of hunting scenes in which Akbar surveys his prey on the hunt, as for example on the doublure of the binding of this same volume. Credit: Artist, Madhu. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f.298r) (Public Domain)
Here Alexander is a philosopher-king and questions the origin of the universe of his philosophers: Valens, Apollonius, Socrates, Porphyry, Hermes and Plato. Having listened to each philosopher in turn, he declared that, in view of their contradictory opinions, the only certainty could be that there was no creation without a creator. By resorting to enlightenment rather than reason, Iskandar was acknowledged as supremely wise and thereby achieved prophethood. Credit: Artist, Nanha. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f.305r) his seven philosophers
Despatched on a prophetic mission by the angel Srosh, Iskandar explored the Western regions and at the edge of the world encountered a shore where there were many coloured stones, blue, red, yellow and black, like yellow marcasites, each weighing about five to ten pounds. If a person looked at one of these stones, he laughed so much that he died. Iskandar ordered the rocks to be covered with cloth and loaded onto 100 camels. Hastening along the shore he used them to build a fortress without doors and covered the exterior with clay to protect passers by. But whoever climbed over to see the interior, would be exposed to the bare rocks and die. Credit: Artist, Bhem Gujarati. Lahore, 1593-5 (Or.12208, f.312v)

This article first appeared on British Library’s Asian and African studies blog.