Translating and Transforming Mughal History

In art historical narratives, Persian miniature painting is often described as an unchanging art form. Far from being a static tradition, however, miniature painting was a global style, absorbing and transforming myriad influences. Participating in this ever-evolving art form, contemporary Pakistani artist Hamra Abbas engages with the long history of transformation and innovation in Mughal workshops. In Battle Scenes, for example, Abbas transforms a scene from the Akbarnama that illustrates a battle between Emperor Akbar’s army and his enemies. The original scene is characteristic of the Akbarnama: it is vibrantly colored, lively, and teeming with people. In Abbas’s transformation, the image—now animated—is populated with visitors from an array of London parks. Abbas has stripped the scene, highlighting and isolating moments. She depicts only the fighting figures—the landscape, weapons, and horses have all been removed. Battle Scenes offers a glimpse of London’s diversity, which is in large part a result of their colonial history. The figures—different races, ages, genders, and religions—fight in front of a black background, which places Abbas’s soldiers in a void; their time and place is impossible to discern. Abbas’s intervention—and dialogue with the artists of the Akbarnama—challenges the national and art historical myths of an unchanging art form. She draws our attention to the long history of power embedded in these objects and her translation enacts a potent critique of the ways objects and histories are manipulated, categorized, and coopted by a variety of forces.