Lot Essay
The calligraphy on this panel is possibly attributable to Sultan Muhammad Nur, who was active in Herat as a calligrapher from at least AH 905/1499-1500 AD to AH 943/1536 AD.
Dust Muhammad stresses Sultan Muhammad's special expertise in writing with coloured inks (ed. Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby, Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, Italy, 2003, p. 52). Four calligraphic pages, also published in the Hunt for Paradise catalogue (Thompson and Canby, op. cit., Nos. 3.4-3.7, p.53), bear resemblance to the present piece, particularly in similarities in the colours used and the borders which they are set down within. Another similar example signed by Sultan Muhammad Nur can be found in David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album 1400-1600, Yale, 2005, Fig. 139, p. 260. However, it should be borne in mind that calligraphers working in similar styles were also prevalent in Herat at the time and so there exists the possibility that this was executed by someone working in a very similar style.
Dust Muhammad stresses Sultan Muhammad's special expertise in writing with coloured inks (ed. Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby, Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, Italy, 2003, p. 52). Four calligraphic pages, also published in the Hunt for Paradise catalogue (Thompson and Canby, op. cit., Nos. 3.4-3.7, p.53), bear resemblance to the present piece, particularly in similarities in the colours used and the borders which they are set down within. Another similar example signed by Sultan Muhammad Nur can be found in David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album 1400-1600, Yale, 2005, Fig. 139, p. 260. However, it should be borne in mind that calligraphers working in similar styles were also prevalent in Herat at the time and so there exists the possibility that this was executed by someone working in a very similar style.