Abd al-Samad, Safavid-trained Mughal painter

Abd al-Samad was a painter trained at the court of the Safavid Shah Tahmasp; with Mir Sayyid Ali he was one of the two painters Humayun brought from the Iranian court when he regained his dominions in 1554, introducing to India the latest developments of the Iranian book. ¹

After Humayun met the shah's painters in exile he sent for them in 1546; they left Tabriz in 1548, waited at Kandahar until calm returned to Kabul, joined him there in 1549 and accompanied him back to India in 1554. ² Welch attributes to him Princes of the House of Timur, the earliest known work by these artists, in which he worked under the influence of his colleague Mir Sayyid Ali; typical of him are bold arm gestures, flights of birds, the treatment of trees and vegetation and a convincing arrangement of forms in space. ^{1 2}