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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

  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

The contents of the Library of Congress Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions and are free to use and reuse.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, African and Middle East Division, Near East Section Persian Manuscript Collection

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Ghazals of Asifi. 16th Century. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714571/.

APA citation style:

Ghazals of Asifi. 16th Century. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714571/.

MLA citation style:

Ghazals of Asifi. 16th Century. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2019714571/>.