Sufi saints seated around holy scriptures

Unknown artist

Top, Khwaja Mu'in uddin Chishti (left) and Muhi'uddin, i.e. 'Abdul Qadir Gilani, founder of the Qadiri order, whom Mu'in uddin is said to have met in Baghdad. Middle (left) Qutb uddin Kaki, Mu'in's spiritual successor, and Shah Sharaf, who must be Sharaf uddin Bu 'Ali of Panipat who was 4th in line of succession from Qutb uddin. Bottom (left) Shaikh Farid, the successor to Qutb uddin, and 'Nizami', who must be Nizam uddin Awlia, the disciple of Baba Farid and founder of the Nizami section of the Chishti order (identification kindly supplied by Mr Robert Skelton, 2004) There are several version of this composition. An early version, now in a St. Petersburg album, is a Mughal work of the mid-17th century with a landscape from an engraving after Brill added by an 18th-century Iranian artist after the album had left India, which explains why Indian copies like the present work omit the landscape (R. Skelton, 2004)