Farrukh Husain (painter of Bijapur)

Zuhuri, in the Khwan-i Khalil, names him fourth of six courtiers of Ibrahim Adil Shah II: "Maulana Farrukh Husain, than whose painting nothing better can be imagined", whose pupils took pride in learning from him and took the outline of his plain sketch as their model. ² Mark Zebrowski infers that he was master of the royal workshop, may have drawn outlines for others to colour as in the Mughal atelier, and that his place among the favourites shows the high standing of some painters. ⁴

The author believes that the Leningrad painter — who joins Persian paradise gardens to the luminous meadows of the northern Renaissance for a sombre poetry suited to Ibrahim's romantic temper — is Farrukh Husain; his best picture is Ibrahim hawking, in Leningrad, and his others include Ibrahim playing a tambur and riding an elephant. ¹

Robert Skelton proposed that the Mughal painter Farrukh Beg went to Bijapur between 1600 and 1610 and worked for Ibrahim as Farrukh Husain. Zebrowski answers that there is no textual evidence of Farrukh Beg's emigration to the Deccan and that Farrukh Beg's cool, official style with mask-like oval faces differs from the Leningrad painter's Deccani exuberance, so he thinks them two people. ³