While Islamic law forbade the depiction of animal and human figures in art, there was a long-standing pre-Islamic tradition for figural art in northern India that could not be suppressed. Designers, artists and craftsmen were careful to observe the restrictions in architecture and other public forms of art, but for more private forms of art, including sumptuous illustrated manuscripts such as this one, animal, human, and even divine figures were commonly portrayed. Furthermore, Miskin, the artist to whom this work is attributed, was a Hindu, not a Muslim. The Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) retained a number of Hindu painters as well as Muslims in his entourage, partly for their talent, but perhaps also partly due to the fact that their religion did not prohibit them from painting the sorts of images Akbar required.

This page is believed to illustrate a popular animal fable, in which a crow cautions the rest of the animal kingdom against choosing the owl as their leader, an act that resulted in the eternal enmity between owls and crows.¹ The crow may be seen at the top of the peak addressing a crowd of animals, including birds, fish, insects and the larger animals, such as a lion, crocodile and elephant. Mythical creatures also present, such as the dragon and phoenix, or simurgh, as it is known in the Muslim world, appearing on the right side of the peak. Both of these last two creatures demonstrate the impact of Chinese design motifs, probably a carry-over from the Mughal's Timurid heritage.

As the British Museum web site explains, animal fables with moral endings were a traditional way to teach lessons of morality to the young, much like the fables of Aesop. It is said that the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) was particularly fond of the genre, and ordered an illustrated copy of one such collection called Anvar-i Suhayli ('Lights of Canopus'). He later commissioned a simpler version of the same stories for his young sons, `Iyar-i Danesh ('Pearls of Wisdom').²

(1) See the British Museum web site dedicated to this object.

(2) Ibid.