A highlight of this lecture is sure to be the visual presentation of a selection of exquisite images from the Royal Collection.
Mr Oliver Everett, Librarian Emeritus of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, United Kingdom, will be presenting the images as part of an international public lecture based on the Islamic manuscript, the Padshahnama (chronicle of the King of the World) which is the unique official history of the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, who ruled India from 1628 to 1658. He is best remembered for the building of the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The Padshahnama is illustrated with 44 of the finest Mughal paintings in the world. They vividly depict the very dramatic events in the Emperor’s reign and the years before it. Most of the important individuals in Shah Jahan’s court can be identified and the paintings tell the remarkable story of the intrigues of court life as well as the Emperor’s Coronation, royal weddings, bloody battles and hunting scenes. The book is the finest Islamic manuscript in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and was given to King George III in 1797 by the ruler of the north Indian state of Oudh.