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Lot Essay
Sultan Muhammad ibn Nurullah, also known as Sultan Muhammad Nur (d. circa AH 940/1533-34 AD) was a pupil of Sultan 'Ali Mashhadi and a scribe at the court of Mir 'Ali Shir Nawa'i, minister to the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara. His recorded words are dated between AH 912-938/1506-32 AD, making this manuscript his oldest (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, Vol. I, Teheran, 1345 sh., pp.272-9).
In 1544 Dust Muhammad compiled an album of calligraphy and painting for the Safavid Prince Bahram Mirza, which contained thirty signed specimens of Sultan Muhammad's calligraphy, many of which were written on paper of different colours (now in the Topkapi Saray Library, H.2154, published in David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album 1400-1600, Yale 2005, pp.245-307). In the introduction he lavishes praise on Sultan Muhammad for his 'accomplishment and purity' as a scribe (ed. Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby, Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, Italy, 2003, p. 52).
The colophon of a copy of the Qeranossa 'Deyn of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi is in the Art and History Trust Collection (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York 1992, no.56a, b., pp.152-3). Whilst the structure of the signature in the colophon is slightly different, similarities can be drawn between the colour of the paper, gold borders and flowing nasta'liq.
In 1544 Dust Muhammad compiled an album of calligraphy and painting for the Safavid Prince Bahram Mirza, which contained thirty signed specimens of Sultan Muhammad's calligraphy, many of which were written on paper of different colours (now in the Topkapi Saray Library, H.2154, published in David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album 1400-1600, Yale 2005, pp.245-307). In the introduction he lavishes praise on Sultan Muhammad for his 'accomplishment and purity' as a scribe (ed. Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby, Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, Italy, 2003, p. 52).
The colophon of a copy of the Qeranossa 'Deyn of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi is in the Art and History Trust Collection (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York 1992, no.56a, b., pp.152-3). Whilst the structure of the signature in the colophon is slightly different, similarities can be drawn between the colour of the paper, gold borders and flowing nasta'liq.