Pearls of Wisdom: The Arts of Islam at the University of Michigan

This painting depicts the death of the Prophet Muhammad surrounded by members of his family. It is included in a late 16th-century illustrated copy of Fuzuli's Hadiqat al-Su‘ada (Garden of the Blessed), a martyrology that recounts the suffering and death of members of Muhammad's family. This particular manuscript includes thirteen paintings, which depict Muhammad and his household (the ahl al-bayt) with flaming halos—and thus as a holy family touched by divine light. Except for Fatima, the Prophet's daughter who bears a white facial veil, all other characters would have originally been shown without any facial veils. The rather sloppy swathes of black paint appear to have been added at a later date. They may have been inserted by a viewer who believed that figural representations are forbidden in Islam—itself one of the most widespread misconceptions about Islamic art.

Bibliography: Manuscript's online catalogue entry; and Milstein 1990, esp. 100–105, cat. nos. 14–31, figs. 12 and 21.