Word: hamzanama
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...Persian literary culture. Akbar was so enchanted by these swashbuckling accounts of derring-do that he commissioned 1,400 exquisite canvas folios depicting scenes from them (five of the paintings accompany this article). According to C.M. Naim, professor of Urdu studies at the University of Chicago, the illustrated Hamzanama (as the collected works are known) is "the Taj Mahal of medieval painting...
...visual clue as to why he isn't better remembered. Historically, says Memon, Amir Hamza's stories were narrated in episodes "as performance - it was not just a book you can pick up and read alone." Indeed, recitals often took place in front of paintings like those of the Hamzanama. But with the advent of modern printing presses, the complexity and poetical phrasing of the dastan - so perfect by the flickering light of a fire and before a richly colored canvas - began to seem affected, if not a little odd, set down in stark, black-and-white text. Amir Hamza...
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