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Lot Essay
For the Munajat of Abdullah Ansari, see footnote to lot 349.
Mir 'Imad was born around the year AH 961/1553-4 AD in Qazwin, the capital of Safavid Iran. He moved to Tabriz where he was apprenticed to the master Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi, moving back to the capital on completion of his studies in 981/1573-4. He became an itinerant craftsman, as was the custom among his profession, accepting commissions as he moved from one town to the next. Later in life he set out for the hajj and remained in the region for several years, working in Aleppo before returning to Iran in 1005/1596-7.
His great rival as court calligrapher, 'Ali Reza-i Abasi, gradually replaced him in the Shah's favour and, in the increasingly extreme Shi'ite environment of the court of Shah Abbas , he was accused of Sufism and Sunnism. He was murdered in 1024/1615 by an agent of the Shah.
Highly valued in his own time, he was last great calligrapher to work in nasta'liq. Mir 'Imad 's prolific output is in various collections around the world. A particularly rich collection of his work is the St. Petersburg Muraqqa' (Akimushkin, O.: The Calligraphy of the St. Petersburg Album in The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Milan 1996, pp. 46)
Other examples of his work in this sale are lots 342, 347, and 349.
Mir 'Imad was born around the year AH 961/1553-4 AD in Qazwin, the capital of Safavid Iran. He moved to Tabriz where he was apprenticed to the master Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi, moving back to the capital on completion of his studies in 981/1573-4. He became an itinerant craftsman, as was the custom among his profession, accepting commissions as he moved from one town to the next. Later in life he set out for the hajj and remained in the region for several years, working in Aleppo before returning to Iran in 1005/1596-7.
His great rival as court calligrapher, 'Ali Reza-i Abasi, gradually replaced him in the Shah's favour and, in the increasingly extreme Shi'ite environment of the court of Shah Abbas , he was accused of Sufism and Sunnism. He was murdered in 1024/1615 by an agent of the Shah.
Highly valued in his own time, he was last great calligrapher to work in nasta'liq. Mir 'Imad 's prolific output is in various collections around the world. A particularly rich collection of his work is the St. Petersburg Muraqqa' (Akimushkin, O.: The Calligraphy of the St. Petersburg Album in The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Milan 1996, pp. 46)
Other examples of his work in this sale are lots 342, 347, and 349.