Lot Essay
'Alireza al-'Abbasi was a well known calligrapher of the Safavid period who was put in charge of the Royal Library. He wrote in all styles and his most outstanding works are the thuluth inscriptions on monuments in Isfahan and the nasta'liq inscriptions on a gold panel over the tomb of the Imam Reza in Mashhad. His other recorded works include a small treatise and calligraphic pages in nasta'liq which are dated between AH 1000 (1591-92 AD) and AH 1022 (1613-14 AD) (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, Vol. I, Tehran, 1346 sh, pp. 456-61 and Vol. IV, 1358, p. 109).