The Emperor Akbar and his troops leave a fortress: a page from an Akbarnama, mounted on a page from the Farhang-i Jahangiri

This painting depicts the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542– 1605) riding an elephant and surrounded by his troops. The group is shown leaving a fortified city-palace complex. The soldiers are depicted carrying a variety of arms; including spears, arrows, an axe, and a musket. The musket is noteworthy, for the Mughal dynasty is considered one of the most successful of the gunpowder empires.

Akbar was the third and, to some, the greatest of all Mughal emperors. Over the centuries and up through the present he has frequently been seen as an exemplary model of a secular, liberal, and heroic leader. He was only fourteen when he became emperor and went on to rule for forty-nine years. He gradually enlarged his empire to include Afghanistan in the west, Kashmir in the north, Bengal in the east, and south all the way to part of the south central plateau. He has been noted over the centuries for his ability to unite various religious and ethnic groups.

This painting is from an illustrated copy of the Akbarnama completed around 1604. The Akbarnama is a three-volume biography and history of the reign of Akbar, written by his prime minister Abu'l Fazl. A French dealer extracted several miniatures from the manuscript and re-mounted them using gilded borders from the Farhang-i Jahangiri, the royal dictionary completed during the reign of Akbar's son Jahangir. The animals depicted in the border are carefully executed. On the side with the painting we see beautiful renderings of cranes, antelope, and rabbits as well as an expressive phoenix.