A NASTA'LIQ QUATRAIN

SIGNED MUHAMMAD HUSSAIN [KASHMIRI, ZARIN QALAM] MUGHAL INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A NASTA'LIQ QUATRAIN
SIGNED MUHAMMAD HUSSAIN [KASHMIRI, ZARIN QALAM] MUGHAL INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Pen and ink on paper with contemporaneous gold and gouache decoration, 4ll. of elegant black Persian nasta'liq in clouds reserved against gold ground, with four triangles of very elegant gold and polychrome floral illumination to the sides and corners, the lower one with the signature mashq al-'abd al-faqir Muhammad Husayn, laid down with green minor border and gold and black rules on wide gold-sprinkled cream borders
Calligraphy 8¼ x 4 3/8in. (20.8 x 11.2cm.); folio 12¼ x 8¼in. (31 x 21cm.)

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Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse

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Lot Essay

Muhammad Husayn al-Katib Kashmiri (d. AH 1020/1611-12 AD), was the most celebrated calligrapher at the court of the emperor Akbar, who gave him the title of Zarin Qalam (Golden Pen). He continued to work at the court of Jahangir and his recorded work is dated between 988
(1580-1 AD) and 1017 (1608-9 AD) (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e
Khosh-Nevisan, Vol. III, Tehran, 1348 sh., pp 702-704). For another of his calligraphic panels, mounted as an album page with a miniature by Kesu Das, see lot 12.

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