Oldest Picture of Guru Nanak Ji FOUND

[BhagatBalmik]

Recently while reading some website i came across an article about pictures of the Gurus that were painted during there own time and how we still have them. On Page 5 of the article there mentioned how in Baghdad Guru Nanak Ji Maharaj give permission to the king of Baghdad to paint Guru Sahibs Picture. In the article it mentions that a European named William Ouseley published a book in 1797 call "oriental Collections vol II". William Ouseley found this picture of Guru Sahib in a Baghdad palace and put the picture in his book. I searched for the book and found it, where it has Guru Ji's picture. There are two pages one gives a brief description and the second has the picture.

Here are the pages with the pictures

[Mehtab Singh]

The Arabic inscription below the picture reads "Baba Nanak wa Mardana Rababi", which means "Baba Nanak and Mardana Rababi".

[Sherdil]

Seli Topi

"Nanick's coat is blue, his cap particoloured red, yellow and blue."

[Mat Pulo Rai]

Thanks for sharing

[Shamshere]

So does that mean Guru Nanak wore a topi instead of a pagh?

[dalsingh101]

Priceless. Can someone explain what a seli topi is?

[dalsingh101]

We should note that Ouseley's 1797 book says:

'The portraits are engraved from an Indian original painting in the editor's collection.'

So it is an engraved copy of an original. Still a very interesting, early portrait, that predates any significant British influence on Sikhs by half a century.

Some researcher needs to find this guys descendants and see if they have more details on the painting - they may even have the original spoken of in their archive?

[jang123]

This is the original painting of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji in Baghdad :

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=138218369596482&set=a.123622801056039.33163.117224928362493&type=3&theater

I see no coat and topi!

I can clearly see a dastar and full fledged beard. I believe this is a part of the whole painting which can be found in still in Baghdad and Sant Singh Maskeen Ji had seen it.

[jang123]

Sant Singh ji Maskeen in Baghdad:

http://www.maskeensahib.com/?p=p_31

(see the last picture with original painting by a Muslim in Baghdad)

[TheFancyBanana]

Is the place built for Guru Nanak Ji still there? I heard that it was damaged/destroyed during American bombing.