Müezzin

Behzad created this work sometime between the fall of Vienna in 1531 and his death in 1535, while Behzad accompanied Suleiman on his European campaign. It is a metaphor for Suleiman as Lawgiver, pious religious figure, and provider for his people, Muslims and Haseki (non-Muslims.) 

The müezzin stands atop the tower and appears to be calling Simurgh, the mystical bird of Persian myth, to prayer. Simurgh is found throughout Persian, Arab, and Turkish myth and poetry, and here represents all knowledge and the ability to speak directly with God. The tower (a Romanized minaret) reaches toward heaven. Baqi’s doublet accompanies the work:

In the foreground, people are mining for gold and taking a large basket of ore to be refined. There was a shortage of gold in Europe at this time because Suleiman had disrupted the main gold trading center, Cairo, and had taken over many of the gold mines operating in the Balkans and Crimea, diverting much of the gold back to Constantinople.  The entire folio, from the sky to the miners below, displays the golden opulence of the ruler, a visual portrayal of the Sultan’s power, in stark contrast to rival, Philip II of Spain, who oversaw five state bankruptcies during his reign.

As Lawgiver, Suleiman is represented in two ways: first, in the bottom left foreground, as the one who will punish the unfaithful, and second, as the scale-bearer, balancing the needs of his subjects, in this case Shia on the left and Sunni on the right. Suleiman codified the basic Ottoman legal principles or Kanuns that had been written by his predecessors. He did this while adhering to the tenets of Sharia law. The resulting laws called the kanun‐i Osmani, would last over 300 years.