SIGNED 'ABDULLAH TABBAKH, TIMURID HERAT, CIRCA 1470-80

Details

A CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL
SIGNED 'ABDULLAH TABBAKH, TIMURID HERAT, CIRCA 1470-80
Ink and gouache heightened with gold on paper, comprising a central line of bold thuluth with 6ll. of naskh above and a further 5ll. below, the calligraphy in white clouds on gold ground, with later added scrolling vine and polychrome and gold floral illumination, laid down on wide gold-speckled card margin
Calligraphy 7 7/8 x 5 5/8in. (20 x 14.8cm.); folio 11 7/8 x 10 3/8in. (29.8 x 26.4cm.)

Engraved

The calligraphy here is on the subject of water, including verses attributed to the jahili poet al-Hadira.

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Lot Essay

Shihab al-Din 'Abdullah Harawi, also known as 'Abdullah Tabbakh, was a calligrapher who worked in the atelier of Prince Baysunghur at Herat. He was one of the most celebrated calligraphers of the Timurid era, especially known for his thuluth. He is responsible for the calligraphy on a number of buildings in Herat, and notably those founded in Mashhad by Gauhar Shad Begum, wife of Shah Rukh. He founded a school of calligraphy in Herat and numbered amongst his pupils 'Abd al-Haqq and Shaykh Kamal Shabzavari, the father of the artist Shaykh Muhammad. Another Qur'an copied by him is in the Chester Beatty Library (A.J. Arberry, The Koran Illuminated. A Handlist of the Korans in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 1967, no.141, p.43).

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