Sultan Muhammad

Sultan Mohammad was an Iranian painter at the Safavid court in Tabriz under Shah Ismail I and Shah Tahmasp I . He served as the director of Shah Ismail's artists’ workshop and as the first project director of the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp. He gave painting lessons to Tahmasp when he was the crown prince. The miniatures created by Sultan Mohammed are on folios 12, 38v, 46, 89 v, 192, 196, 233, 244 and 285 of the manuscript.

Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp (c.1520-1535)

Sultan Mohammad’s painting “The Court of Gayumars” is widely considered the “crowning achievement” of the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp.

Cartier Hafiz (1531) Around 1531, while at the court in Tabriz, Sultan Mohammed contributed three miniatures to the Cartier Hafiz, a magnificent copy of the Diwan of Hafez. The three miniatures are Celebration of Id, one of the rare miniatures to bear his signature, the Allegory of drunkenness, and also probably The lovers picnicking, which is in the same style.

In Celebration of Id, on the throne, at the feet of the ruler Shah Tahmasp at the center of the composition, Sultan Muhammad added his signature: "The work (amal) of Sultan Muhammad of 'Eraq". Various adjectives fit for a king surround the signature: victory (fatḥ), [divine] assistance (nuṣrat), good fortune (dawlat), triumph (pirūzī), and [long] life (`umr).

Other works

Sultan Mohammed was also among the few distinguished artists to contribute to an illustrated manuscript of the Khamseh of Nizami that was copied by the scribe Shah Mahmud of Nishapur at Tabriz and produced between 1539 and 1543. Furthermore, he decorated the borders of many other fine Safavid manuscripts.

A presumed equestrian portrait of Shah Tahmasp, now in the Louvre Museum is also attributed to Sultan Mohammed.