Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 22. (Budapest, 2003)

Iván SZÁNTÓ: Reflections on the Origins of the Persian Appliqué from the Esterházy Treasury

been appointed governor of Herat. In 1531 the conflict intensified, when having left Herat (which was now occupied by the troops of the Shibanid 'Obeyd Kän), for the royal encampment at Esfahan, Sam MTrzä and his instigator hurried to the shah, and Hoseyn Kän immediately made clear his demands for power. From then on until 1533 it was essentially the Sämlü amir who ran the country, which was now plunged in chaos. The events in Esfahan were linked by Abolala Soudavar to the revived interest with the Gerân al-s'adayn, a historical epic written by Amîr Kosrov, and has drawn attention to a particular illustration, The Reconciliation of King Kay-Qobäd of Delhi with his brother Kay-Qävüs (folio 70 verso, ///. 14), mentioned earlier. This painting he attributed to Mïr Mosavver.

74 Hoseyn Kän was not fastidious in his means: when considered necessary, he used physical force, for the most part, however, he feigned loyalty to the shah, while worked on weakening those whose loyalty was sincere. The kingmaker he wanted to be. In this way, when he judged the time ripe, he managed to spur his protégé, prince Sam, to rebel by promising him the crown. The most enduring evidence of his flattery is the already mentioned The Feast of 'Id (III. 10), signed by Solçân Mohammad, which would have been Tahmäsb 's if - as the inscriptions attest - the powerful amîr al-omärä had not put his hands on it.

75 (This is the painting that Gombos suggests as an analogy of the appliqué).

76 The scarcely seventeen-year-old prince, cultured

77 and ambitious, began to grow restless in 1533 and later on, at the news of Hoseyn Kän Sämlü

's execution, he launched an open revolt.

78 His self-confidence was greatly boosted by the fact that he had the support of 'Obeyd Kän and Sulaymän I (the Magnificent). The latter declared Säm as his son, namely an Iranian ruler who recognised Ottoman supremacy.

79 He also counted on the support of Homäyün, the emperor of India.

80 After all this, it was something bordering on the miraculous - although it was not unprecedented in Tahmäsb's intelligent and fortunate military policy - that the kingdom nevertheless survived. According to Martin Bemard Dickson, the reasons are to be sought most of all in sultan Sulaymän's unsuccessful western, and in Sam's disasterous eastern, military campaigns, as both forces became disorganised before they could have united. In order to save the situation, the prince, amidst many pleas for forgiveness, hurriedly executed a few of his followers and blamed what had happened on the wrong advice of Hoseyn Kän (1534).

81 His elder brother dealt with him generously,

82 sending him a ceremonial robe (kel'at) as a sign of his restored confidence in the prince, but, in any case, ordered him to Qazvin one year later, so that he should not be too far away.

83 Among the reasons for the clash Dickson considered the difference in maturity stemming from the brothers' ages to be of decisive importance.

84 For amirs with an interest in the continuation of anarchy, the adolescent Säm was at an ideal age, one that the shah in his twenties, awakening to greater self-awareness, was beginning to outgrow. The age difference, the situation and the date well accord with the picture displayed on the appliqué. In this the Safavid prince is the only person not taking part in the banquet, but, displaying his subjection, is waiting for the monarch to receive him. In the 1530s Säm Mïrzâ found himself in exactly this humiliating situation. In 1531 the "conjunction of the two lucky stars" (as conveyed by Mïr Mosavver's painting) slipped by without trouble.

85 Four years later, however, he suffered a loss of prestige commensurate with the responsibility weighing on him. Säm Mïrza's surrender at this time closed the first period of shah Tahmäsb I's reign, in actual fact an interregnum during which the young monarch had still not enforced his sovereignty over the powerful amirs. The appliqué may well be a worthy memorial to this historical turning point. The issue of the style likewise supports the Sâm Mïrzâ hypothesis. Mïr Mosavver, whose oeuvre presents us with the closest analogies, was happy to circulate among those close to the prince.

86 He may have committed himself excessively to him, since the list of his works ends around 1535, exactly the same time as the