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Manuscript/Mixed Material Verses by Baba Tahir

About this Item

Title

  • Verses by Baba Tahir

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

  • -  Persian verses by Baba Tahir, 11th-century Persian poet, written in black nasta'liq script in the 16th- or 17th- century Iran.
  • -  Dimensions of Written Surface: 13 (w) x 21 (h) cm
  • -  I am that ant which is crushed underfoot / Not the bee from whose sting they suffer
  • -  Man u murum ka dar payam bamaland / Na zanburum ka az nasham banaland
  • -  Other Persian verses appear both above and below the central panel, and in the left vertical a register contains an elaborate prose prayer (du'a) wishing a king prosperity and happiness.
  • -  The fragment is neither dated nor signed. However, it appears to have been produced in 16th- or 17th- century Iran and placed later into an album (muraqqa') of calligraphies.
  • -  The texts are executed in black nasta'liq script on variously colored papers decorated with designs in gold paint, cut out individually and pasted together into one composition. Triangular areas left empty by the intersection of diagonal lines of text and rectangular frames are filled with blue and gold illumination. The whole text panel is pasted to a larger sheet of cream-colored paper decorated with gold flecks and backed with cardboard.
  • -  This calligraphic fragment includes various excerpts in both prose and verse. In the central blue panel, verses by the 11th-century Persian poet Baba Tahir describe his helplessness and inferiority:
  • -  Script: nasta'liq
  • -  1-85-154.66

Medium

  • 1 volume ; 21.5 (w) x 33.1 (h) cm

Repository

  • Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2019714610

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:

Verses by Baba Tahir. 16th-17th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714610/.

APA citation style:

Verses by Baba Tahir. 16th-17th Centuries. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714610/.

MLA citation style:

Verses by Baba Tahir. 16th-17th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2019714610/>.