A DECOUPÉ CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL

SIGNED SULTAN MUHAMMAD NUR, SAFAVID IRAN, 16TH CENTURY

Details

A DECOUPÉ CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL
SIGNED SULTAN MUHAMMAD NUR, SAFAVID IRAN, 16TH CENTURY
Persian manuscript on paper, with 6ll. of diagonal découpe nasta'liq on blue ground, a further line running up one side, signed both by the calligrapher and by the artist responsible for doing the cutting, Darwish Nur, the calligraphy framed by floral illumination, laid down between minor gold illuminated borders on wide modern margins with decorated with floral sprays and gold flecks, owner's note in upper and lower margins
Panel 7 1/8 x 4 1/8in. (18.2 x 10.5cm.); folio 18 ½ x 12 ½in. (46.9 x 31.6cm.)

Engraved

The text here is a quatrain of Jalal al-Din Rumi and a quatrain of Jami

Sale room notice

Please note that the correct estimate for this lot is £8,000 - £10,000 GBP. The estimate in the catalogue is incorrect.

Please note that the Gulf Cooperation Council has imposed a ban on the importation of Iranian goods to or via its member states. Please check with your shippers whether you will be able to ship Iranian artworks to the GCC member states prior to purchase.

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Lot Essay

Sultan Muhammad bin Nurullah, also known as Sultan Muhammad Nur (d. circa AH 940/1533-34 AD) was a pupil of Sultan 'Ali Mashhadi and a scribe at the court of Mir 'Ali Shir Nawa'i, minister to the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara in Herat. His recorded works are dated between AH 912 (1506 AD) and AH 938 (1532 AD) (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, vol. I, Teheran, 1345 sh., pp.272-9). Sultan Muhammad Nur was an innovative calligrapher, renowned for his work in colour (Sheila Blair, Islamic Calligraphy, Edinburgh, 2008, p.55). In 1544 Dust Muhammad compiled an album of calligraphy and painting for the Safavid Prince Bahram Mirza, which contained thirty signed specimens of Sultan Muhammad's calligraphy, many of which were written on paper of different colours (now in the Topkapi Saray Library, H.2154, published in David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album 1400-1600, Yale 2005, pp.245-307). In the introduction Dust Muhammad lavishes praise on Sultan Muhammad for his "accomplishment and purity" as a scribe and stresses his special expertise in writing with coloured inks (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, Italy, 2003, p.52). A manuscript copied by him sold in these Rooms, 10 April 2014, lot 9.

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