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Lot Essay
Baba Shah was famed as a master of nasta’liq script. The dates and details of his life have been subject to some dispute. He possibly studied at a young age with Mir ‘Ali Haravi (d. 1544-45 AD) and must have died in Baghdad around 1587-88 AD when he was still relatively young. Iskandar Beg, the historian of the Safavid court, wrote that Baba Shah was without rival in Iraq and Khurasan. He is the author of a number of works of which the most famous is Adab al-Mashq, a treatise on nasta’liq script. For a discussion on Baba Shah and Adab al-Mashq, see Carl W. Ernst, The Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy: Baba Shah I?fahani's Adab al-Mashq , in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 112, No. 2, 1992, pp.279- 286
The added Qajar shamsa states that this copy was originally commissioned for the library of Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524-1576 AD).
A calligraphic panel by the Qajar calligrapher Shams al-Udaba', who attributes this manuscript to Baba Shah 'Iraqi, is in the Harvard Art Museums and dated 1862 AD (1958.210 https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/214451).
The added Qajar shamsa states that this copy was originally commissioned for the library of Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524-1576 AD).
A calligraphic panel by the Qajar calligrapher Shams al-Udaba', who attributes this manuscript to Baba Shah 'Iraqi, is in the Harvard Art Museums and dated 1862 AD (1958.210 https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/214451).