English: Drawing, album?. Portrait. Mauláná Jalál al-Dín. Drawn and tinted on paper.

Jalal al-Din Rumi and Hafiz Mughal India, early 19th century Ink and watercolour on paper

The posthumous portraits of these two famous Persian poets have been placed in an album of drawings and paintings of dignitaries and kings. The English inscriptions on the left hand page describes Rumi (1207-73): 'Mowlana Djelaleddin, a Turk of Natoly (Anatolia), author of the Mesnevi (mathnavi) Rumi, an excellent treatise of ethics in Persian verses, sung all over Persia, Turkey and in India in companies.

The English inscriptions above the drawing on the right misidentified the poet Hafiz (1325-90), whose name appears in Persian in the lower margin. While the pose of Hafiz and the book next to him identify him as a poet, these attributes are not specific to him alone. By contrast, the enormous turban and sleeves, profile pose and wrinkled face are traits that regularly appear in posthumous portraits of the mystical poet, Rumi. He was Persian by birth but settled in Konya in Anatolia.