Investigating the Differences of Abd-Al-Samad Shirazi's Paintings in the Courts of Shah Tahmasp and Goorkanis of India

Abd-Al-Samad, one of the active painters of the Safavid court, was invited in his youth to India by the ruler of the time to establish a school of painting which was started with the principles of Iranian painting. In this study it has been attempted to introduce his paintings in the time interval of 1535 to 1600. In this period, Abd-Al-Samad was busy, working in the royal painting workshop of three kings with three different types of beliefs: the Shiite Shah Tahmasp I, the Sunni Shah Humayun and Akbar Shah who believed in Akbari doctrine. Hence, the differences of this artist’s paintings are investigated in the above mentioned period.
Regarding the importance of Abd-Al-Samad’s artistic personality and his unparalleled influence on Indian art, this research aims at making this valuable painter known to the artist society. Given the need for examining the remaining paintings, the research method was selected to be comparative-analytic and library resources as well as observations have aided the research being carried out. Plain differences in the paintings selected from the working periods of the painter may be observed which are the results of the king imposing his own taste on the painter’s work of art, because the used techniques are not similar to what he started and it can be implied that the artist continued his work in a new mental environment of his work place.