Ibrāhīm Mahmūd 'Abd al-Bāqī

Ottoman sultan Süleyman I, richly dressed in black and gold and wearing a majestic white turban, is the focus of this hunting scene. This sheet is from the Süleymanname, an illustrated history of Süleyman’s reign (1520–1566) and the fifth volume in a series about the history of the Ottoman empire. The many archers, riflemen, and dignitaries attending the sultan heighten the splendor of the pageantry. Numerous spectators peek from behind the hills, attesting to the popularity of such spectacles.

Hunting scenes were commonplace in illustrated manuscripts, as they represented important aspects of court culture and animated the text they accompanied.