Spotted this beauty at the vamuseum today - at the ‘Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence’ exhibition —and noticed that #Nowruz was mentioned 🌱 During the extravagant Nowruz celebrations of March 1621 AD (think fireworks, feasting, and a full imperial fanfare), this striped Zebra was presented to Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire. Ever the sceptic, he ordered a close inspection to confirm it wasn’t just a horse with stripes painted on it. Convinced it was no trick, he commissioned his court painter, the brilliant Ustad Mansur, to capture it in all its glory. Look closely and you’ll spot Jahangir’s own spidery scrawl in Farsi on the right, crediting the artwork — “A likeness of the wild donkey (zebra), seen in the land of Abyssinia, copied from the original specimen by the humble servant of the court, Mansur.”