Five leaves of calligraphy

Details

Five leaves of calligraphy
Herat, 16th century

comprising Qur'anic and religious text, various lines of poetry (ghazals and ruba'yat) and calligraphic exercises, Perian and Arabic manuscript on buff, marbled or coloured paper, panels of elegant gold, black and coloured naskh and nasta'liq with gold and polychrome illuminated triangles, in gold and coloured margins between black rules and/or illuminated floral and inscription cartouche borders, three folios signed by 'Issa, one stating it was copied in the Dar al-Sultaneh, Herat and dated AH 980/1572-3 AD and one signed on the other side by Yari, one folio signed by 'Abdul Rahim, one by Muhammad b. Mayyad, all mounted on gold-sprinkled buff or blue leaves, one leaf also painted with green, orange and blue dots
folio 14 x 9in. (35.4 x 23.3cm.) (5)

Lot Essay

Of the scribes mentioned nothing is known of Muhammad b. Mayyad. Though two 'Abd al-Rahims are mentioned in Minorsky, both are earlier than the style of the present. 'Issa is 'Issa Beg known to have worked in the mid-sixteenth century and Yari is Yari Mudhahhab of Herat of the same period.

Minorsky, V.: Calligraphers and Painters, Washington 1959, pp.64, 67, 100-102, 166, 188

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