Nujum-ul-Ulum

This hypothesis is strengthened by the length of the volume, the quality and quantity of its miniatures, the extensive use of gold in the manuscript, and the number of painters employed - all factors that seem to suggest a royal patron.

[1] In fact, Emma Flatt in her recent article on the Nujum al-‘ulum goes further to attribute, from internal evidence, the authorship to Ali Adil Shah himself "or at least the sixteenth-century equivalent of a celebrity ghostwriter".

The rulers of Bijapur had cordial relations with Turkey and Persia, and the astronomical illustrations in the Nujum al-‘ulum might well derive from an Ottoman Turkish manuscript, such as the works of Fuzuli.

The manuscript's description in the Chester Beatty Library says that the Nujum al-‘ulum (‘Stars of the Sciences’) is a compendium of Muslim and Hindu beliefs mainly dealing with astrology and magic.

The folios included here illustrate the northern constellations Andromeda (portrayed as a woman) and the Horse, the Sun in a chariot, the zodiac sign Leo (a lion) with accompanying nakshatras (mansions of the moon) and degrees, Jupiter depicted as an elderly king in procession, and the Universal Ruler (cakravatin) upon his seven-storied throne.