CALLIGRAPHY BY MIR HUSAYN AL-HUSAYNI, KNOWN AS MIR KOLANGI, SAFAVID IRAN, LATE 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This illustration comes from a dispersed manuscript by the highly celebrated Safavid calligrapher, Mir Husayn al-Husayni, known as Mir Kolangi, who was from Nasaf in Transoxania. Mir Husayn worked in Bukhara and as evident from his extant work, he was still alive in 1575-76. He is known as one of the seven pupils of Mir ‘Ali Haravi and the elegance of his hand was compared to that of his master. His works are housed in many major museums and collections around the world, in particular in Iran. Some other published examples of the scribe's work in Europe include two copies of Sa'di's Bustan dated AH 963/1556-7 AD and to the second half sixteenth century (both in the Biblioteque Nationale, Paris; Sup. pers.1187 and Pers.257) and copies of Jami's Mathnawi and his Tuhfat al-Ahrar dated AH 952/1543-4 AD and AH 980/1572-3 AD (in the Chester Beatty Library).