Manuscript/Mixed Material Verses from Nizami's "Divan"
About this Item
Title
- Verses from Nizami's "Divan"
Names
- Abu al-Ma'ali
Created / Published
- 16th-17th centuries
Headings
- - Calligraphy, Arabic
- - Calligraphy, Persian
- - Manuscripts, Persian--Washington (D.C.)
- - Iran
- - Arabic script calligraphy
- - Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
- - Islamic calligraphy
- - Islamic manuscripts
- - Nasta'liq
Notes
- - Safavid style Persian calligraphy fragmentary with a poem by Nizami, in the Nasta'liq script.
- - (For) every idol that they fashioned / They sewed a robe the size of its body / Not everyone can be the confidant of power / Not every donkey can carry Jesus
- - Dimensions of Written Surface: 18.7 (w) x 12 (h) cm
- - Har sanami-ra ka bar afrukhtand / Jama bar andanza-yi tan dukhtand / Mahram-i dawlat nabavad har sari / Bar-i Masiha nakashad har khari
- - The text is signed by a certain Abu al-Ma'ali, whose name appears in an opposite diagonal at the center of the composition. Although sharing his name with the reputed calligrapher Abu al-Ma'ali 'Izz al-Din 'Abd al-Wahhab Zanjani (d. 606/1292), a disciple of Yaqut al-Musta'simi (Huart 1972, 82), the Abu al-Ma'ali who composed this fragment in nasta'liq script must have been active at a much later date. The composition, which recalls a number of Safavid calligraphic exercises (siyah mashq) in its formal make-up and calligraphic style, must have been executed during the 16th or 17th century.
- - The verses are executed in dark brown ink on a beige paper framed by a blue border. It is pasted to a larger sheet of beige paper decorated with green flecks of paint and backed by cardboard.
- - This calligraphic fragment includes several verses from Nizami's (d. 614/1218) "Divan" (Compendium of Poems). Beginning with an invocation to God, the verses then describe how certain things and people fulfill a particular role in the world:
- - Script: nasta'liq
- - 1-04-713.19.37
Medium
- 1 volume ; 36.5 (w) x 24 (h) cm
Repository
- Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2019714521
Online Format
- image