SIGNED MAHMUD IBN ISHAQ AL-SHAHABI, SHAYBANID BALKH OR BUKHARA, DATED AH 983/1575-76 AD

Details

A CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL
SIGNED MAHMUD IBN ISHAQ AL-SHAHABI, SHAYBANID BALKH OR BUKHARA, DATED AH 983/1575-76 AD
Persian manuscript on paper, the central rectangular panel of gold-speckled paper with 2ll. of elegant black nasta’liq with floral sprays, flanking a narrower line of calligraphy, within a gold field with a floral lattice, two figures later painted to either side, framed by gold and polychrome borders, the outer margin of pink dyed paper with gold floral illumination, mounted on forest-green card
Panel 8 1/4 x 4 5/8in. (20.8 x 11.6cm.); mount 11 1/2 x 7 1/2in. (29.2 x 18.9cm.)

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Lot Essay

The son of a Turcoman governor of Herat, Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi was taken to Bukhara after the city fell to ‘Ubaydallah Khan in AH 935/1528-29 AD. There he received training from the great calligrapher Mir ‘Ali Haravi (d.1544). Later on he moved to Balkh, where he worked for a local governor. His recorded works date between AH 924/1518-19 AD and AH 993/1585-86 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval-va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol III., Tehran, 1346, pp.876-80). Other calligraphies of his handwriting have sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2017, lot 85, and 24 October 2019, lot 50. For a full account of his life see V. Minorsky (tr.), Calligraphers and Painters, Washington, 1959, p. 131.

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