AN ILLUMINATED ALBUM FOLIO OF CALLIGRAPHY, WITH AN ASCRIPTION TO SULTAN ALI AL-MASHHADI, PROBABLY BUKHARA, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

Album page, ink and opaque watercolour on paper, calligraphy in naskhi, thuluth and nasta'liq scripts within ruled panels surrounded by illumination, one section of nasta'liq script with signature of Sultan Ali al-Mashhadi, mounted with borders of gold-sprinkled blue and cream paper

Adrienne Minassian, New York, 1955

Sultan Ali al-Mashhadi was the greatest calligrapher of the late Timurid and early Safavid periods. He spent the majority of his career at the court of Sultan Husayn Bayqara at Herat, but moved to Mashhad after the death of his patron. He may also have spent t.mes at the court of the Shaybanid Khan at Bukhara after he left Herat but before arriving in Mashhad. He is discussed at length by Qadi Ahmad in his treatise on calligraphers and painters (see Minorsky 1959, pp.101-2). The illumination of this album page is executed in a style associated with Bukhara in the early 16th century, and this would fit with Sultan Ali's sojourn in Bukhara in the early 16th century. The text consists of mufradat and a couplet from a ghazal of Hafiz.