SIGNED MAHMUD IBN ISHAQ AL-SHAHABI, SHAYBANID BALKH OR BUKHARA, DATED AH 983/1575-76 AD

The son of a Turcoman governor of Herat, Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi was taken to Bukhara after the city fell to ‘Ubaydallah Khan in AH 935/1528-29 AD. There he received training from the great calligrapher Mir ‘Ali Haravi (d.1544). Later on he moved to Balkh, where he worked for a local governor. His recorded works date between AH 924/1518-19 AD and AH 993/1585-86 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval-va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol III., Tehran, 1346, pp.876-80). Other calligraphies of his handwriting have sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2017, lot 85, and 24 October 2019, lot 50. For a full account of his life see V. Minorsky (tr.), Calligraphers and Painters, Washington, 1959, p. 131.