Indian Book Painting: From Jahāngīr’s Album in the State Library in Berlin

Indian Book Painting: From Jahāngīr’s Album in the State Library in Berlin, by Ernst Kühnel and Hermann Goetz, is an important scholarly study of Mughal manuscript painting centered on a remarkable album associated with the court of Emperor Jahāngīr. The authors examine the album’s date, origin, artistic composition, portraits, social setting, costume, and broader place within the history of Indian and Persianate miniature painting. The volume was conceived as a detailed study of an exceptional manuscript that combines Indian Mughal painting with strong Persian artistic traditions. The book pays particular attention to the album’s richly decorated borders, calligraphy, portraits, courtly scenes, landscapes, animals, flowers, and other miniature subjects. Its chapters also investigate Mughal social history, dress and costume, artistic techniques, border painting, and the development of miniature painting, making the volume a valuable reference for the study of Mughal art, Jahāngīr-period painting, manuscript culture, and Indo-Persian artistic exchange.