A CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM PAGE, SIGNED BY ‘ALI AL-HUSAYNI, PERSIA, SAFAVID, FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY
Auction Closed
June 10, 06:00 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM PAGE, SIGNED BY ‘ALI AL-HUSAYNI, PERSIA, SAFAVID, FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY
Persian manuscript on paper, the quatrain written diagonally in black nasta’liq, the panel decorated with polychrome and gold floral scrolls against a blue ground, encircled by 8 cartouches of black nasta’liq within clouds against a gold ground decorated with polychrome scrolls, the right margin with three illuminated devices, framed
text panel: 20 by 12cm.
leaf: 32 by 23cm.
Many calligraphers signed 'Ali al-Husayni but this delicate panel was likely to be copied by Mir ‘Ali al-Harawi, one of the most famous nata’liq calligraphers of the sixteenth century. Al-Harawi started working at the Timurid court of Sultan Husayn Baygara, where he was given the titles sultani and katib a-sultan. After the capture of Herat in 1528 he was taken to Bukhara by the Uzbek ‘Ubaydullah Khan where he died circa 1550.
His recorded works copied in both Herat and Bukhara are dated between 914 AH (1508-09 AD) and 951 AH (1544 AD) (Mehdi Bayani, ahval va asar-e khosh-navisan, vol.2, Tehran, 1346sh, pp.493-516).
The cartouches in the margins are couplets from Sa’adi’s Gulistan. An album page attributed to his period in Bukhara is in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington (inv.no. F1939.50b), another is in the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (inv.no.AKM255).