Tipu Sultan (Sultan Fateh Ali Khan Shahab)
Why is he important?
- was a muslim but majority of his subjects were Hindus
- on the request of the French he built the first church in Mysore
- he defeated the British in the second war of Mysore along with his father Hyder Ali
More than two centuries after he died defending his capital, Seringapatam, from the British, the Sultan continues to entice the world and how. In Sotheby's biannual Arts of the Islamic World Sale on October 6, a set of 24 rare and rediscovered preparatory paintings depicting the Battle of Pollilur was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £769,250.
How is this auction relevant in today's world?
At a time when the relationship between the Islamic world and Europe is in close focus – with debates over immigration, cultural assimilation, global jihad and the rising tide of Western neo-conservatism – such moments take on dramatic contours. They allow us to reassess the flow of history through the modes of patronage and representation. To look at Tipu Sultan's Mysore now is also to look at a modern State before the rise of Western-style modernity, a State that was inclusive in its approach to the composite and multi-religious society it governed.
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