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Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy
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Verses by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi
AUTHOR/CREATOR
Calligrapher: Muhammad Husayn al-Katib
CREATED/PUBLISHED
998/1590
NOTES
Dimensions of Written Surface: 21.3 (w) cm x 29.2 (h)
Script: nasta'liq
This calligraphic fragment includes a number of verses written by the poet Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d. 1325), whose name is noted in the upper right corner of the central text panel (li-Amir Khusraw). The verses describe the permanence of love as a flower bud in perpetual blossom, and read:
An hama shakal khush-i dilkash ka dar gulzar ast / Khar dar chashmam agar za anha yaki chun yar ast / Miravam sad bar dar gulzar u miayam birun / Vaz parishani namidanam ka gul dar bar ast / Khak-i Kisra gul shud u taj-i murassa' khak shud / Nam-i ‘ashiq hamchanan bar har dar u divar ast
This so beautiful, pleasing one in the rose garden / (May God place) a thorn in my eyes if one of them (the flowers) is similar to you / I enter and leave the garden a hundred times / (and) because of my distress I do not know which flower is in bloom / The dust of Kisra became a flower and the bejeweled crown turned to dust / The name of the lover still (remains) on every door and wall
The text panel is framed by a number of other verses held in registers on a pink or blue ground painted with gold designs, and is pasted to a larger sheet of blue paper with deer and flowers painted in gold. The composition is backed with cardboard for strengthening.
In the lower left corner and on the two horizontal lines of text below the central panel, the calligrapher Muhammad Husayn al-Katib ("the writer") has signed his work with his diminutives and his request for God's forgiveness of his sins. He also states that he completed the calligraphic panel in the year 998/1590. The calligrapher Muhammad Husayn either appears to have been active during the reign of the Safavid Shah 'Abbas I (r. 1587–1629) or could be identified as the calligrapher active in Shah Isma'il II's (r. 1776-77) atelier until he found employment in India (Huart 1972: 230 and 319).
SUBJECT
Arabic script calligraphy
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic manuscripts
Poetry
Nasta'liq
Arabic calligraphy
MEDIUM
39 (w) cm x 27.7 (h)
CALL NUMBER
1-85-154.89
REPOSITORY
Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, Washington, D.C. 20540
DIGITAL ID
ascs 133
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.133
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