The Funeral Procession of Suleyman the Magnificent

A procession of mullas (jurists and other religious scholars) carry the coffin of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (d. 1566), perched on the front of which is the sultan’s turban. A figure walks before the coffin holding above his head a gold box containing a Qur'an.The sultan’s domed tomb--and also that of his wife Roxelana--was already built by the time of his death, and the artist has included both tombs in the background of the painting. However, he has also depicted a group of men digging--at the very moment the procession passes--what is surely intended to represent the sultan’s grave, chronological accuracy clearly being less important than the added measure of pathos brought to the composition by the inclusion of this detail.