 From about 1572 he headed the imperial workshop of the Emperor Akbar and "it was under his guidance that Mughal style came to maturity".It has recently been contended by a leading specialist, Barbara Brend, that Samad is the same person as Mirza Ali, a Persian artist whose documented career seems to end at the same time as Abd al-Samad appears working for the Mughals.Mirza Ali's name first appears in a famous manuscript of the "Khamsa of Nizami", now British Library Oriental 2265, which is dated March 1543.