A FINE CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL

SIGNED 'ALI AL-HUSAYNI, SAFAVID IRAN, LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A FINE CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL
SIGNED 'ALI AL-HUSAYNI, SAFAVID IRAN, LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Ink and gold on gold-speckled paper, the main panel an elegant nasta'liq quatrain with four lines written diagonally and arranged between finely illuminated cartouches in gold and polychrome, bordered with further calligraphic cartouches with illuminated ground, laid down between gold and polychrome rules on a page from a 16th century Safavid Qur'an with three large marginal illuminated medallions, framed and glazed
Folio 12.3/8 x 9.1/8in. (32 x 23cm.)

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Lot Essay

It is presumed by many that the calligrapher signing himself 'Ali al-Husayni al-Katib is one and the same as the celebrated calligrapher Mir 'Ali al-Harawi, who is credited with developing new rules for nasta'liq script (Marianne Shreve Simpson, 'A Manuscript Made for the Safavid Prince Bahram Mirza', Burlington Magazine, June 1991, p.382). Mir 'Ali al-Harawi wrote a set of verses on the mausoleum of Reza in Mashhad there signing himself 'Ali al-Husayni. Melikian-Chirvani however believes that rather he is the same as a certain 'Ali al-Husayni al-Musawwir who signed a single page in an album in the Evkaf Library in Istanbul (Asadullah Souren Melikian Chirvani, Le Chant du Monde. L'Art de l'Iran safavide, Paris, 2007, p. 213). In either case it is clear that 'Ali al-Husayni was a calligrapher of great talent.

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