in watercolour in paper heightened with white, the monument depicted with camels and figures in the foreground, image 27.5 x 38cm., framed

This mid-seventeenth century monument was built for the governor of Thatta, Isa Khan II. He was appointed to this position in 1628 or 1629 by the Mughals who had assumed direct control of the city in 1613. Isa Khan II's time in the position of governor was brief but he remained active, possibly as late as 1651 when he was laid to rest in this tomb. Isa Khan I, his father had initiated building grand mausolea at this site, Makli, in the sixteenth century. With the decline of Mughal authority in the region in the eighteenth century, local powers vied for control. The Talpurs, originally from Punjab, achieved this in the late eighteenth century but were ousted by British forces, under the command of General Napier, in 1843. At this point there was a rise in British access to and interest in the monuments of the area, including the impressive tombs of the Tarkhans.