Timur's forces led by his son ‘Umar Shaykh defeating the army of Qamar al-Din

The dust of the steppe had hardly settled when the tsar's painters got to work in the royal workshop. Between 1595 and 1600, Jagjivan Kalan was mixing mineral paints and melting gold leaf to depict an imperial military victory for ruler Akbar. On a miniature size of a palm, the artist painted how Prince Umar Shaykh led Timur's troops through the rocky pass to cut off Qamar al Din's forces. The horses' tails appear to whip the hot air of battle as their owners, clad in expensive saddlecloths, gallop toward the opposing ranks. Below them, a decapitated enemy soldier is frozen in a horrified pose. Set off by the painter's black calligraphy and signed in red at the picture's edge, such an impressive composition transforms a bloody medieval confrontation into a wondrous palm-sized epic masterpiece.