{"id":8472,"date":"2024-03-28T09:01:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T13:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/?p=8472"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:19:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:19:54","slug":"images-of-the-virgin-mary-in-mughal-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2024\/images-of-the-virgin-mary-in-mughal-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Images of the Virgin Mary in Mughal Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mika Natif<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Synopsis: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Virgin Mary (Maryam) became a popular image among the Mughal ruling elite from the late 16th<\/sup> to the mid-17th century. Her depiction appears in single-page pictures set in albums, on wall paintings in Mughal palaces, and within illustrated manuscripts. This presentation focuses on the links between images of Mary and the articulation of Mughal ancestry, the dynasty\u2019s imperial ideology through the female line, and the images\u2019 relationship to European paintings and prints. The latter were imported to India and were studied by Mughal artists who repurposed Renaissance elements for their own creations of Mughal Marian iconography during the premodern period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Worksheet:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A worksheet for this video is available here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also visit the Khamseen Worksheets page here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abu\u2019l Fazl ibn Mubarak, History of Akbar<\/em>, ed. and trans. Wheeler Thackston. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey, Gauvin Alexander. Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542\u20131773<\/em>. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beach, Milo Cleveland. The Imperial Image: Paintings for the Mughal Court<\/em>. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1981. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Das, Asok Kumar. Mughal Painting during Jahangir\u2019s Time<\/em>. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1978. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koch, Ebba. \u201cThe Influence of the Jesuit Missions on Symbolic Representations of the Mughal Emperors.\u201d In Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology: Collected Essays<\/em>, ed. Ebba Koch, 1\u201311. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natif, Mika. Mughal Occidentalism: Artistic Encounters Between Europe and Asia at the Courts of India, 1580\u20131630<\/em>. Leiden: Brill, 2018. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okada, Amina. Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court<\/em>, trans. Deke Dusinberre. New York: Abrams, 1992. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stowasser, Barbara Freyer. Women in the Qur\u2019an, Traditions, and Interpretations<\/em>. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Citation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mika Natif, “Images of the Virgin Mary in Mughal Art,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online<\/em>, 28 March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mika Natif<\/strong><\/a> is Associate Professor of Art History at the George Washington University. Her scholarly work focuses on the intercultural exchanges and global connections that Muslim societies forged with Europe during the premodern era. She is the author of Mughal Occidentalism: Artistic Encounters Between Europe and Asia at the Courts of India, 1580-1630<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(Leiden: Brill, 2018). Her current research explores notions of images, diversity and religious tolerance in the arts of Mughal India, female portraiture, and the role of women as patrons and artists in pre-modern Persianate spheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mika Natif Synopsis: The Virgin Mary (Maryam) became a popular image among the Mughal ruling elite from the late 16th to the mid-17th century. Her depiction appears in single-page pictures set in albums, on wall paintings in Mughal palaces, and within illustrated manuscripts. This presentation focuses on the links between images of Mary and the… Continue reading Images of the Virgin Mary in Mughal Art<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3351,"featured_media":8525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97,379,386,327,151,256,378],"class_list":["post-8472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-topics","tag-mughal-arts-topics","tag-print-cultures-topics","tag-religious-arts-topics","tag-south-asian-arts-topics","tag-the-mughals","tag-topics","tag-women-and-the-arts-topics","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg",900,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg",900,600,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg",900,600,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg",900,600,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg",18,12,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/02\/mnatif-virgin-mary-mughal-art-video-image_900x600px.jpg",900,600,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"besener","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/author\/besener\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Mika Natif Synopsis: The Virgin Mary (Maryam) became a popular image among the Mughal ruling elite from the late 16th to the mid-17th century. Her depiction appears in single-page pictures set in albums, on wall paintings in Mughal palaces, and within illustrated manuscripts. This presentation focuses on the links between images of Mary and the……","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4315,"url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2022\/monsoon-winds-and-ming-porcelains\/","url_meta":{"origin":8472,"position":0},"title":"Monsoon Winds and Ming Porcelains","author":"besener","date":"March 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Monsoon Winds and Ming Porcelains: Collecting and Displaying Chinese Ceramics at the Mughal Court Denise-Marie Teece Synopsis: While the porcelain collection donated by the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas to Ardebil, and the massive Ottoman Chinese porcelain collection held in Istanbul\u2019s Topkap\u0131 Palace, are well known and relatively well published, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Topics","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/category\/topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2021\/12\/dmteece-chinese-ceramics-mughal_court-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2021\/12\/dmteece-chinese-ceramics-mughal_court-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2021\/12\/dmteece-chinese-ceramics-mughal_court-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2021\/12\/dmteece-chinese-ceramics-mughal_court-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1294,"url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2020\/jahangirs-dream\/","url_meta":{"origin":8472,"position":1},"title":"Jahangir’s Dream","author":"besener","date":"October 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.mivideo.it.umich.edu\/id\/1_yabucjv5?width=708&height=502&playerId=46145191 Yael Rice Synopsis: Sometime around the early seventeenth century, the painter Abu\u2019l Hasan depicted his patron, the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605\u201327), encountering his contemporary and rival, the Safavid ruler Shah \u2018Abbas (r. 1588\u20131629), in a dream. This presentation explores the implications for interpreting this unusual painting as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Topics","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/category\/topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2020\/10\/yrice-jahangir-video-image_FS-F1945_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2020\/10\/yrice-jahangir-video-image_FS-F1945_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2020\/10\/yrice-jahangir-video-image_FS-F1945_900x600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2020\/10\/yrice-jahangir-video-image_FS-F1945_900x600px.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11686,"url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2025\/the-british-appropriation-of-mughal-pacchikari-stone-inlay-in-agra-ca-1840-1940\/","url_meta":{"origin":8472,"position":2},"title":"The British Appropriation of Mughal Pacchikari (Stone Inlay)\u00a0in Agra, ca. 1840-1940","author":"besener","date":"October 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Lola Cindri\u0107 Khamseen Graduate Student Presentation Award 2024 Recipient Synopsis: One of the most distinctive ornamental features of 17th-century Mughal architecture is its stone inlaid decorations, known in Hindi and Urdu as pacchikari. Drawing from rougher forms of polychrome inlay in the previous centuries, this craft reached its apex under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Topics","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/category\/topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marble inlaid tabletop, Agra, c. 1900.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/10\/lcindric-gspa-topic-greenway-table-detail-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/10\/lcindric-gspa-topic-greenway-table-detail-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/10\/lcindric-gspa-topic-greenway-table-detail-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2024\/10\/lcindric-gspa-topic-greenway-table-detail-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8206,"url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2024\/a-legacy-of-female-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":8472,"position":3},"title":"A Legacy of Female Power: Representations of Queen Humayun Shah from the Deccan’s Ahmadnagar Sultanate","author":"besener","date":"January 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.mivideo.it.umich.edu\/id\/1_s2wmdpy3?width=708&height=502&playerId=46145191 Namrata B. Kanchan Khamseen Graduate Student Presentation Award 2023 Recipient Synopsis: This presentation explores the removal of Queen Humayun Shah (d. 1569 CE?) from paintings included in an illustrated copy of the masnavi (narrative poem) Ta\u2018rif-i Husain Shah created during the 1560s in western India\u2019s Deccan sultanate of Ahmadnagar.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Topics","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/category\/topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2023\/11\/nkanchan-2nd-GSPA-humayun-shah-video-image-detail_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2023\/11\/nkanchan-2nd-GSPA-humayun-shah-video-image-detail_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2023\/11\/nkanchan-2nd-GSPA-humayun-shah-video-image-detail_900x600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2023\/11\/nkanchan-2nd-GSPA-humayun-shah-video-image-detail_900x600px.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13296,"url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2026\/mongol-cosmopolitanism-the-case-of-rashid-al-din-and-his-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":8472,"position":4},"title":"Mongol Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Rashid al-Din and his Moses","author":"Julia Falkovitch-Khain","date":"January 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Fran\u00e7ais \u4e2d\u6587 Mika Natif Synopsis: This talk examines seven paintings of Moses featured in Rashid al-Din\u2019s Arabic copy of his World History, the Jami\u2018 al-Tawarikh. These images portray Moses, or Musa in Arabic, as both supreme ruler and prophet-king, an ideal figure whom Rashid al-Din may have sought to emulate.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Topics","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/category\/topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Moses watches Pharaoh\u2019s army drowning in the Red Sea, from the Jami\u2018 al- Tawarikh of Rashid al-Din.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/11\/natif-mongol-cosmopolitanism-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/11\/natif-mongol-cosmopolitanism-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/11\/natif-mongol-cosmopolitanism-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/11\/natif-mongol-cosmopolitanism-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12129,"url":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/topics\/2025\/muslim-saints-in-south-asian-painting\/","url_meta":{"origin":8472,"position":5},"title":"Muslim Saints in South Asian Painting","author":"Julia Falkovitch-Khain","date":"November 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Murad Khan Mumtaz Synopsis: This talk explores the impact of Princess Jahanara Begum (1614\u201381) and Prince Dara Shikoh (1615\u201359), the children of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58), on devotional portraiture in Hindustan. In particular, it focuses on a pivotal moment in the history of devotional painting when one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Topics"","block_context":{"text":"Topics","link":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/category\/topics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Unidentified artist, Portrait of Mulla Shah, Mughal India.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/08\/mumtaz-muslim-saints-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/08\/mumtaz-muslim-saints-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/08\/mumtaz-muslim-saints-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1139\/2025\/08\/mumtaz-muslim-saints-topic-video-image_900x600px.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3351"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8472"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14046,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472\/revisions\/14046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.lsa.umich.edu\/khamseen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}