Title: [Verses by Jami]

Description

This calligraphic fragment includes verses composed by the Persian poet Jami (died 1492 [897 AH]), whose full name, Mawlana 'Abd al-Rahman Jami, is noted in the topmost panel. In larger script appears a ghazal (lyric poem) in which a lover sighs about the lack of news from his beloved. The central text frames are bordered on the right and left by illuminated panels and contain a ruba'i (iambic pentameter quatrain) written in smaller script. The quatrain encourages true and eternal love of God rather than passing infatuations: "Every beautiful face that manifested itself to you/Quickly the heavens will remove it from your eyes/Go and give your heart to the person in the bounds of existence/Who has always been with you, and always will." The text is executed in black nasta'liq script on blue paper sprinkled with gold flecks. Every verse is framed by a gold line and separated by a gutter or border illuminated with panels in gold, pink, and orange. The text panel is pasted onto a larger sheet of orange paper backed by cardboard. In the lowest panel appears the calligrapher's signature, “Written by the servant Mahmud b. Mawlana Khwajah.” Little is known about this calligrapher, but the hues and decorative motifs suggest that he worked in Central Asia (perhaps in Shaybanid Bukhara or Samarqand) in the 16th century.