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Lot Essay
One side of this elegant album page contains the work of the preeminent calligrapher Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi (fl.1453-1519), who was born in Mashhad around 1437. Qadi Ahmad in his famous treatise describes his writing among other writings as the sun among other planets (V. Minorsky, Calligraphers and Painters, A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad, son of Mir Munshi, Washington, 1959, pp.101-3). Sultan ‘Ali was Sultan Husyan Mirza Bayqara’s (r.1469-1506) favourite court calligrapher and was acquainted with both Amir ‘Ali-Shir Nava’i and ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami. His works include some of the finest Persian and Turkish manuscripts composed for the Timurid court, such as a copy of ‘Attar’s Mantiq al-Tayar or ‘Conference of the Birds’ now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (MS.63.210). Based on the dates of the earliest manuscripts he wrote in Herat, it appears that Sultan ‘Ali immigrated there sometime before the onset of the sultanate of Sultan Husayn and remained there until his return to Mashhad in 1506. On our album page, Sultan ‘Ali states that he completed the work in the dar al-sultaneh in Herat, indicating that this panel, and the album from which it comes, was made at the royal court.
The frontispiece of the album from which this folio comes is in the Harvard Art Museum, published also by Sheila Canby in the Hunt for Paradise exhibition, and illustrated below. In that exhibition catalogue, Canby writes that the illuminator who worked on the album may have been Mawlana Ghiyath al-Din Mudahhab al-Mashhadi, a master illuminator who was known to have worked with Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), Hunt for Paradise. Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2004, pp.138-9, cat.5.2). He is also the illuminator credited with the invention of the gold sprinkling technique (zar afshan), as visible on the margins of on our folio. In this technique, the paper was primed and then flecked with gold, conveying a particularly precious quality to the folio it illuminates. It is likely that our folio is also decorated by the same illuminator.
In addition to the frontispiece only four other folios from this album are presently known. Two are at Harvard (1958.246 and 1958.237), one at the Metropolitan Museum (acc.no. 1982.120.4) and one at the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv.1983.1115). The folios are each the work of different prominent calligraphers of the period – the Metropolitan folio and one of the Harvard ones are copied by Sultan Muhammad Nur, the second Harvard one is by Muhammad al-Abrishami al-Mashhadi and the Cleveland one is by Sultan Muhammad Khandan. The calligraphy of the frontispiece, like ours, is by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi. Clearly this was an album for which no expense was spared. All the folios have identical gold speckled borders, and the illumination and format of each is very similar to ours. Four of the five folios have lines from a mufradat very similar to ours. All, including ours, have pencil markings, which are likely to be in the same hand – ours bears the numerals 6 and 7. This suggests that the album was at some stage in the hands of a European or perhaps more likely, American, collector who later dispersed it.
The frontispiece of the album from which this folio comes is in the Harvard Art Museum, published also by Sheila Canby in the Hunt for Paradise exhibition, and illustrated below. In that exhibition catalogue, Canby writes that the illuminator who worked on the album may have been Mawlana Ghiyath al-Din Mudahhab al-Mashhadi, a master illuminator who was known to have worked with Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), Hunt for Paradise. Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2004, pp.138-9, cat.5.2). He is also the illuminator credited with the invention of the gold sprinkling technique (zar afshan), as visible on the margins of on our folio. In this technique, the paper was primed and then flecked with gold, conveying a particularly precious quality to the folio it illuminates. It is likely that our folio is also decorated by the same illuminator.
In addition to the frontispiece only four other folios from this album are presently known. Two are at Harvard (1958.246 and 1958.237), one at the Metropolitan Museum (acc.no. 1982.120.4) and one at the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv.1983.1115). The folios are each the work of different prominent calligraphers of the period – the Metropolitan folio and one of the Harvard ones are copied by Sultan Muhammad Nur, the second Harvard one is by Muhammad al-Abrishami al-Mashhadi and the Cleveland one is by Sultan Muhammad Khandan. The calligraphy of the frontispiece, like ours, is by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi. Clearly this was an album for which no expense was spared. All the folios have identical gold speckled borders, and the illumination and format of each is very similar to ours. Four of the five folios have lines from a mufradat very similar to ours. All, including ours, have pencil markings, which are likely to be in the same hand – ours bears the numerals 6 and 7. This suggests that the album was at some stage in the hands of a European or perhaps more likely, American, collector who later dispersed it.