SIGNED MUHAMMAD HUSAYN, MUGHAL INDIA, LATE 16TH CENTURY

Details

AN ILLUMINATED CALLIGRAPHIC FOLIO
SIGNED MUHAMMAD HUSAYN, MUGHAL INDIA, LATE 16TH CENTURY
Verses from a ghazal of Amir Shahi, Persian manuscript on paper, the main panel with 8ll. strong black nasta'liq set diagonally on gold-speckled blue paper with six painted songbirds flanking the couplets, illuminated spandrels with calligrapher's signature to lower, the left hand panel with a further couplet set vertically, inscriptions in gold cusped cartouches above and below, laid down in gold and polychrome rules, gold illuminated narrow border and further rules, the margins with gold stencilled trees and animal combat pairs, within gold and polychrome outer rules, the reverse plain
Panel 8 ¼ x 4in. (20.8 x 10cm.); folio 15 x 10 ¼in. (38 x 26.1cm.)

Provenance

UK art market, 1988

Engraved

Signed in the lower left, al-‘abd al-mudhnib al-faqir al-haqir muhammad husayn ghafara lahu, ‘The sinful, poor wretched servant [of God], Muhammad Husayn, may [God] forgive him.’

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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 Zarin Qalam or 'Golden Pen'. He continued to work at the court of Jahangir and his recorded work is dated between AH 988 / 1580-81 AD and AH 1017 / 1608-09 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol.III, Tehran, 1348 sh., pp.702-704). Many examples of his work are decorated with small pictures of birds, such as an impressive copy of Nizami's Khamsa in the collection of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Specimens of his calligraphy are also included in the Akbar-era album of which a large part is in the Royal Collection (RCIN1005039).

A folio with an identical mise-en-page, including paired birds flanking nasta'liq verses, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1993.380). Further related panels were sold Sotheby's London, 22 April 1980, lot 165, and then in these Rooms, 25 April 2013, lot 51. An further folio from this album is in the Hossein Afshar collection, and featured in the touring exhibition Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands.

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