Mullah Rahim and Mullah Kerim on his way to the bazaar are quarreling

Painted in 1873 and held at the Tretyakov Gallery, this work depicts a scene of everyday social conflict in Central Asian market culture — two mullahs quarreling on the way to the bazaar. Vereshchagin's title is unusually specific, naming the individuals (Mullah Rahim and Mullah Kerim) and their activity, suggesting either a real observed incident or a scene based on local anecdote he recorded in his notebooks. His interest in the social texture of Central Asian life extended to its frictions and comedies, not merely its picturesque or exotic surfaces. The religious figure in a mundane setting — arguing, hurrying to market — humanizes the Islamic clergy rather than presenting them as alien or threatening. This work belongs to Vereshchagin's more ethnographic mode, distinct from his battle paintings but equally committed to direct observation.

The genre subject allows Vereshchagin to play movement and expression against the static architectural or landscape backgrounds characteristic of his outdoor scenes. The two figures in argument require gestural differentiation — one perhaps more aggressive, the other more defensive — rendered through pose and facial expression with the economy of direct sketching.