Manuscript/Mixed Material Eulogy to a ruler
About this Item
Title
- Eulogy to a ruler
Names
- Muhammad Husayn
Created / Published
- 19th-20th centuries
Headings
- - Calligraphy, Arabic
- - Calligraphy, Persian
- - Manuscripts, Persian--Washington (D.C.)
- - Iran
- - India
- - Arabic script calligraphy
- - Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
- - Islamic calligraphy
- - Islamic manuscripts
- - Nasta'liq
Notes
- - Eulogy to a ruler, in Persian, eulogy (na't) dedicated to a king, written by calligrapher Muhammad Husayn in black nasta'liq script in 20th century Iran or India.
- - Dimensions of Written Surface: 12.5 (w) x 26.8 (h) cm
- - In the lower left corner of the text panel, the calligrapher has signed his work with the expression: fidavi dargah Muhammad Husayn tab' namud ("the devoted slave at [your] presence [or court], Muhammad Husayn marked [made] it"). Although otherwise unrecorded, Muhammad Husayn may have been a calligrapher active in Iran or India at the turn of the 20th century.
- - Khuda ya bi-rahmat nadar karda'i / Ka in sayah bar khalq gustarda'i / Talabkar-i khayr-i tu am banda var / Khuda ya tu in sayah payanda dar
- - Oh God, You have looked (down) with mercy / Because You extended this shadow to the people / Like a slave, I seek your goodness / Oh God, You Everlasting Shadow
- - The verses are written in black nasta'liq script framed by cloud bands on a beige sheet of paper whose background is painted in gold. In the upper right corner appears an invocation to God as the Guide (huwa al-hadi) written in a script known as khatt al-taj ("crown writing"), in which letters interlace to form decorative coronets. Khatt al-taj is a rather late calligraphic invention, appearing by far and large in specimens produced during the 19th and 20th centuries (al-Bahnasi 1995, 19).
- - This calligraphic fragment includes a Persian eulogy (na't) to a king, describing him as the shadow (sayah) of God on earth. The verses read:
- - Script: nasta'liq
- - 1-85-154.100
Medium
- 1 volume ; 15.7 (w) x 29.5 (h) cm
Repository
- Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2019714606
Online Format
- image