A SAFAVID ALBUM PAGE WITH CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED BY SHAH MAHMUD NISHAPURI
PERSIA, 16TH CENTURY AND LATER
£1,386
Auction: 11 December 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
ink, gouache and gold on paper, comprising a calligraphic panel with seven diagonal lines in black nastaliq, the panel above with two lines in black nastaliq, the central panel with an early 20th century miniature painted in the Safavid style, two triangular illuminations, left hand corner with a small illumination panel, verso with two manuscript leaves inscribed in nastaliq
Dimensions
38.5cm x 25.5cm
Footnote
Shah Mahmud, known as Zarrin Qalam (“the Golden Pen”), was born around 1495 AD in Nishapur and learned calligraphy from his maternal uncle, Abdi Nishapuri and later from Sultan Muhammad Khandan.
Though his very first dated writings (from 923 AH/ 1517 AD) relate to the reign of Shah Ismail I, it is very likely that in his youth he entered the court of Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524-1576 AD). After living in Tabriz, when the Safavid capital moved from Tabriz to Qazvin, he immigrated to Mashhad where he lived and occupied himself with writing books in Nasta‘liq until the end of his life. He taught a number of students, among them Salim Nishapuri, Hājj Muhammad Tabrizi, Muhammad Husayn Bakhrazi, Sultan Mahmud Turbati and Qutb-al-Din Yazdi. Among his most important works are the first Qur’an copied in nasta‘liq (which is now kept in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul) and the Khamsa-ye Tahmāspi (which is held in the British Museum). The last of his dated works was written in 982 AH/1574 CE, evidence that he lived in Mashhad until that time.