Manuscript/Mixed Material Ghazals of Asifi
About this Item
Title
- Ghazals of Asifi
Created / Published
- 16th century
Headings
- - Calligraphy, Arabic
- - Calligraphy, Persian
- - Manuscripts, Persian--Washington (D.C.)
- - Afghanistan
- - Iran
- - Arabic script calligraphy
- - Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
- - Islamic calligraphy
- - Islamic manuscripts
- - Nasta'liq
Notes
- - Lyric poems (ghazals) from the "Compendium of Poems" (Divan) of the Persian poet Asifi. Written Nasta'liq script, in Herat or Isfahan during the Safavid era.
- - Dimensions of Written Surface: 7.7 (w) x 14.1 (h) cm
- - The ghazals are executed in black nasta'liq script in two columns, separated at the center by a plain gutter marked off by black vertical lines. The two ghazals are divided by an illuminated horizontal register with a gold-painted panel bordered by a blue background decorated with flowers. Though not inscribed, this panel demarcates each independent ghazal.
- - The text panel is framed by several borders and pasted to a sheet of beige paper decorated with mythical birds (simurgh) painted in gold. The fragment's style and composition are common of Persian manuscripts produced during the Safavid period, i.e., over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.
- - These particular verses on the fragment's recto and verso portray a lover's madness and his complaints (shikayat) about the pains of separation (firaq) from the object of his affection. At the end of the first verse on the sixth line appears the poet's signature or pen-name (takhallus), facilitating the identification of the fragment.
- - This calligraphic fragment includes a variety of lyric poems (ghazals) from the "Compendium of Poems" (Divan) of the Persian poet Asifi. A student of the famous poet Jami (d. 897/1492) in Herat, Asifi remained in the Timurid capital city until his death (923/1517), even during and after the Uzbek invasions. He is known as the precursor of conceptualist poetry.
- - Script: nasta'liq
- - 1-86-154.121
Medium
- 1 volume ; 18.4 (w) x 28.1 (h) cm
Repository
- Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2019714571
Online Format
- image