Oldest Picture of Guru Nanak Ji FOUND

[BhagatBalmik 380]

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 3,907]

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

[Sherdil 352]

Seli Topi

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

[Mat Pulo Rai 32]

Thanks for sharing

[Shamshere 86]

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

[dalsingh101 411]

Priceless. Can someone explain what a seli topi is?

[dalsingh101 411]

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 35]

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 35]

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 749]

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

[Jangal Da 151]

This is great stuff - thank you, BhagatBalmik for sharing.

The inscription reads as Mehtab Singh has already translated. However the script appears to be of Nastaliq Persian type and of a much later period than the 15th century. The gaps between the words (like most old scripts gaps were not left between words of Arabic or Persian - nor were they with Gurmukhi for that matter) make me suspicious this is a later addition and probably penned in by William Ouseley himself who would annotate such items himself in Persian that he had learnt. Being a westerner at that time (early 19th century), he would have left gaps between individual words.

Art and percieving what our Gurus looked like is a natural curiosity. However if you want to have the true darshan of their images all you need to do is open up and look at the pages of the Guru Granth Sahib...

[jang123 35]

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

contact maskeensahib page: guldeep@hotmail.com

[dalsingh101 411]

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.

I think people need to be a little careful of making definitive comments about some internet posted image as authentic or not. Anyone remember the foolishness about the so called 'photo of M. ranjit Singh and Hari Singh Nalua'?

It needs to be looked into by people with the gian to make a judgment regarding authenticity.

[jang123 35]

I think people need to be a little careful of making definitive comments about some internet posted image as authentic or not. Anyone remember the foolishness about the so called 'photo of M. ranjit Singh and Hari Singh Nalua'?

It needs to be looked into by people with the gian to make a judgment regarding authenticity.

See the last picture and try to read the caption:

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

http://www.maskeensahib.com/window.php?p=showPhoto&adresFoto=files/Guru%20Nanak%20Authentic.jpg&sPageTitle=%20Painting%20made%20in%20Baghdad

[chatanga 1,058]

However the script appears to be of Nastaliq Persian type and of a much later period than the 15th century.

i dont know too much about writing styles, but this are persian letters.

What is also interesting (for me) is that Bhai Mardana's rabab only has 4 strings whereas the Sikh Rabab, differed to other rababs by having 6. Should that mean anything?

There is some good reading material on that site.