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Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

Safinah fragment

AUTHOR/CREATOR
Calligrapher: 'Imad al-Hasani al-Katib

CREATED/PUBLISHED
early 17th century

NOTES
Dimensions of Written Surface: 5.5 (w) x 10.1 (h) cm

Script: nasta'liq

This calligraphic fragment forms the first page of an album in a longitudinal shape (safinah). At the top appear a fine illuminated panel and finial (sarloh) with gold and blue flower and vine motifs. In the upper and lower corners, two gold and blue illuminated triangles (or thumb pieces) fill in the remaining spaces between the rectangular frame and the diagonal lines of text.

The text is written in black nasta'liq on beige paper. It includes three bayts (verses) praising God and describing humans' inability to comprehend His power:

Subhan khaliqi ka sifatash za kabriya' / Bar khak-i 'ajz mifakanad 'aql-i anbiya' / Gar sad hazar sal hama khalq-i kaniyat / Fikrat kunand dar sifat-i 'izzat-i khuda / Akhir bi-'ajz mu'tarif ayand kay alah / Danasta shud ka hich nadanasta-im ma

Praise be to the Creator, whose description is of Greatness, / Who dropped on the dust of inability the wisdom of the Prophets. / If for one hundred thousand years, all created beings / Thought about the depiction of God's glory, / Finally they would admit (their) incapacity / To know God, as we (still) will never know.

Around the vertical border of the text panel, the calligrapher (Mir) 'Imad al-Hasani al-Katib ("the writer") has signed his work along with a request for God's forgiveness. Mir 'Imad (d. 1615) was born in 1552, spent time in Herat and Qazvin, and finally settled in Isfahan (then capital of Safavid Persia), where, as a result of his implication in court intrigues, he was murdered in 1615. He was a master of nasta'liq script, whose works were admired, copied, and collected (Welch et al 1987: 32-36).

Many works in international collections are signed by him (inter alia, Safwat 1996, cat. nos. 53 and 62; and Lowry and Beach 1988: no. 456), although whether all these pieces are by his hand remains uncertain. Other calligraphies bearing his name in the collections of the Library of Congress include: 1-84-154.3, 1-84-154.43, 1-85-154.72, 1-87-154.160, 1-90-154.162, and 1-99-106.13 R.

SUBJECT
Arabic calligraphy
Nasta'liq
Islamic manuscripts
Islamic calligraphy
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
Arabic script calligraphy

MEDIUM
7.3 (w) x 18.6 (h) cm

CALL NUMBER
1-85-154.77

REPOSITORY
Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, Washington, D.C. 20540

DIGITAL ID
ascs 124
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.124

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