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About this Item

Title

  • Ruba'is by Hafiz

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

  • -  Quatrains by the Persian poet Hafiz (d. 791/1388-9), written in the black Nasta'liq script during the 16th- or 17th-centuries, in Iran.
  • -  (Bad deeds) have a very strange adjective / This bizarre Satan that eats people / Most people are cannibals / You are not safe when they greet you
  • -  Another quatrain by the Persian poet Hafiz (d. 791/1388-9) is inscribed in vertical panels, the last two verses of which appear on a background painted with gold leaves. This quatrain describes respect owed to one's superiors:
  • -  Dil sara parda-yi muhabbat-i tu-st / Dida ayina dar-i tal'at-i tu-st / Man ka sar dar nayavaram bi-du kawm / Gardanam zir-i bar-i minnat-i tu-st
  • -  Dimensions of Written Surface: 15 (w) x 25 (h) cm
  • -  My heart is in your house of love / (My) eye is the mirror that reflects your brilliance / I, who do not prostrate to the two worlds, / My neck is under the weight of your favor
  • -  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 verses are executed in black nasta'liq script in independent registers on a background decorated with illuminated triangular and rectangular panels. The entirety of the text panel is pasted to a larger sheet of beige paper decorated with light blue vegetal motifs.
  • -  This calligraphic fragment includes three iambic pentameter quatrains, or ruba'is, arranged in corresponding vertical and horizontal panels. The verses written diagonally in the upper right corner describe humans' duplicity:
  • -  Yak sifat-i 'ajab amad in ammara-ra / Bu al-'ajab ifrit-i mardum khwara-ra / Adami khwarand aghlab marduman / Az salam 'alaykashan kam ju aman
  • -  Script: nasta'liq
  • -  1-88-154.35

Medium

  • 1 volume ; 28 (w) x 40.1 (h) cm

Repository

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

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2019714677

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:

Ruba'is by Hafiz. 16th-17th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714677/.

APA citation style:

Ruba'is by Hafiz. 16th-17th Centuries. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714677/.

MLA citation style:

Ruba'is by Hafiz. 16th-17th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2019714677/>.