The enormous Hamzanama, comprising fourteen hundred painted…

The enormous Hamzanama, comprising fourteen hundred painted canvas folios designed to augment a storytelling performance of the life and legendary exploits of the Islamic hero Hamza, is begun in 1567 under the supervision of Sayyid 'Ali and 'Abdus Samad.

The Hamza romance had originated more than fife hundred years earlier, probably in Persia, and has subsequently spread throughout the Islamic world in oral and written forms.

On one side of most folios is a painting, about fifty-four centimeters by sixty-nine centimeters in area, done in a fusion of Persian and Indian styles.

On the other side of most folios is Arabic text in Nasta'liq script.

The folios are ordered, and the text on the back of one folio accompanies the painting on the subsequent folio.