PREVIOUS NEXT NEW SEARCH

Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

Click on picture for larger image, full item, or more versions    [Rights and Reproductions]
  
thumbnail

Quatrain by Rumi

AUTHOR/CREATOR
Calligrapher: Mir 'Ali

CREATED/PUBLISHED
1500-1550

NOTES
Dimensions of Written Surface: 8.3 (w) x 4.7 (h) cm

Script: nasta'liq

This calligraphic piece includes an iambic pentameter quatrain, or ruba'i, composed by the Persian poet Rumi (d. 672/1273). Written diagonally in black nasta'liq script on a white-and-blue marbled paper, the text is also decorated by four illuminated triangles (or thumb pieces) in the spaces left empty by the intersection of the diagonal lines and the rectangular frame. The text panel is framed by two borders in pink and beige painted with interlacing gold vines, and is pasted onto a larger piece of paper decorated with blue flower motifs. The verses read:

Saqi bi-ghamm-i tu 'aql u jan raft / May dah ka takalluf az mayan raft / Shud tab u tavanam andarin rah / Man ham baravam agar tavan raft

(Oh) wine-bringer, because of (my) grief for you, (my) mind and spirit left / Give (me) wine so that (my) pride may disappear. / My patience and ability are spent in this way, / I too would vanish, if only I could.

The poet describes the wine-bringer (saqi) as the object of his "intoxicated" love. His abilities disappear "in this way" (i.e., in loving him/her), and he wishes that he -- much like his abilities conquered by the effects of inebriation -- also would fade away.

The text is signed by the "poor" (faqir) Mir 'Ali, much as it is in a similar fragment in the Sackler Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. (Lowry and Beach 1988, 355, no. 437). Mir 'Ali Heravi (d. 951/1544-5) was a calligrapher in nasta'liq script active in the city of Herat (modern-day Afghanistan) during the 16th century until he was taken to Bukhara (modern-day Uzbekistan) in 935/1528-9 by the Shaybanid ruler 'Ubaydallah Khan Uzbek (Qadi Ahmad 1959: 126-131).

Other calligraphic fragments written by, or attributed to, Mir 'Ali are held in the collections of the Library of Congress. See, for example, 1-04-713.19.38, 1-87-154.158, 1-87-154.159, and 1-90-154.180.

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

MEDIUM
26.7 (w) x 17.2 (h) cm

CALL NUMBER
1-88-154.65

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

DIGITAL ID
ascs 217
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.217

PREVIOUS NEXT NEW SEARCH