Fifteen jewel-like miniature paintings—with enlarged details—and thirteen pages of exquisitely calligraphed poetry are reproduced here from a diminutive manuscript commissioned by Akbar the Great, the third Mughal emperor of India. The manuscript, which measures only 5 1/2 by 27/8 inches, was made in 1588, the thirty-third year of Akbar's reign, when the emperor was at the height of his power. …