Live Auction 15505Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets
AN ILLUMINATED CALLIGRAPHIC FOLIO
Lot 90 PROPERTY FROM A QAJAR NOBLE COLLECTION

AN ILLUMINATED CALLIGRAPHIC FOLIO

SIGNED 'IMAD AL-HASSANI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED AH 1013/1604-05 AD

Closed25 October 2018

Price Realised

GBP 16,250

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AN ILLUMINATED CALLIGRAPHIC FOLIO
SIGNED 'IMAD AL-HASSANI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED AH 1013/1604-05 AD
Consisting of three calligraphic panels laid down within wide card margins, the first with 17ll. of elegant black nasta'liq in blue cloud set against a gold ground with scrolling floral polychrome illumination punctuated with illuminated cartouches, signed and dated; the second panel with 18ll. of black nasta'liq in white cloud on gold ground with polychrome illumination, horizontal lines within blue ground cartouches; the third divided into three sections with a total of 5ll. of black nasta'liq on white cloud reserved against gold ground flanked on the sides by gold and polychrome illumination, within white and pink borders with gold scrolling floral illumination, the margins with a gold floral lattice
Calligraphic panel 9 x 6¾in. (22.8 x 17.2cm.); folio 18 3/8 x 12 7/8in. (46.8 x 32.6cm.)

Specialist note

Mir 'Imad was born around the year AH 961/1553-4 AD in Qazwin, the capital of Safavid Iran. He moved to Tabriz where he was apprenticed to the master Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi, moving back to the capital on completion of his studies in AH 981/1573-4 AD. He became an itinerant craftsman, as was the custom among his profession, accepting commissions as he moved from one town to the next. Later in life he set out for the hajj and remained in the region for several years, working in Aleppo before returning to Iran in AH 1005/1596-7 AD. His great rival as court calligrapher, 'Ali Reza-i Abassi, gradually replaced him in the Shah's favour and, in the increasingly extreme Shi'ite environment of the court of Shah 'Abbas, he was accused of Sufism and Sunnism. He was murdered in AH 1024/1615 AD by an agent of the Shah. For another panel by the same calligrapher in this sale, please see lot 86.