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Manuscript/Mixed Material The ephemerality of the world

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About this Item

Title

  • The ephemerality of the world

Created / Published

  • 16th-17th centuries

Headings

  • -  Calligraphy, Arabic
  • -  Calligraphy, Persian
  • -  Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)
  • -  Iran
  • -  Arabic script calligraphy
  • -  Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
  • -  Islamic calligraphy
  • -  Islamic manuscripts
  • -  Nasta'liq

Notes

  • -  The ephemerality of the world, written in Nasta'liq script and produced in 16th or 17th-century Iran.
  • -  (left vertical): Cha danad kasi ghayr-i parvardagar / Who knows except for God
  • -  (right vertical): Mara bi-juz'-i tu dar hama-yi afaq yar nist / We have no other friend beside you in the whole world
  • -  (with the missing subsequent verse from Firdawsi's "Shahnamah" (The Book of Kings):
  • -  Dimensions of Written Surface: 8.7 (w) x 25.9 (h) cm
  • -  Dunya guzaran u khud cha garmi az an / Aknun ka nasim-i sard piri-st vazan / Bar barg cha i'itimad u bar shakh-i darakht / Khasah vaqti ka mivazad bad-i khazan
  • -  Each calligraphic panel is cut out and pasted on the black background, which is provided with a pink frame decorated with gold leaves. The composition is pasted to a larger white sheet of paper decorated with gold, blue, and red flowers and backed by cardboard.
  • -  ka farda cha bezi kunad ruzagar / How the wind will play tomorrow
  • -  The four horizontal verses inscribed in black nasta'liq script on the illuminated ground of the central panel also describe the impermanence of the world:
  • -  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 world passes and how engaged you are in it / Now that a cold breeze of old age blows / What trust in the leaf and the branch of the tree / Especially when the autumn wind (begins to) blow
  • -  This calligraphic panel includes a number of verses describing the transience of worldly goods. Two lines of Arabic poetry appear in the upper horizontal panels, and two lines of Persian poetry frame the central text panel on the right and left vertical:
  • -  Script: nasta'liq
  • -  1-87-154.143

Medium

  • 1 volume ; 31.4 (w) x 47.5 (h) cm

Repository

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

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2019714649

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:

The Ephemerality of the World. 16th-17th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714649/.

APA citation style:

The Ephemerality of the World. 16th-17th Centuries. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714649/.

MLA citation style:

The Ephemerality of the World. 16th-17th Centuries. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2019714649/>.