A calligraphic piece by Imad al-Husni

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(downloaded May 2004)

"A rare materpiece calligraphic panel by Emaad al Husni,a scribe of great repute from Persia. Condition: Immaculate as evident from scans Born:1554; d Isfahan, 1615). He studied calligraphy with Mulla Muhammad Tabrizi and then travelled extensively, visiting Anatolia, the Hijaz and Khurasan, where he served Farhad Khan Qaramanlu, commander-in-chief of the Safavid shah `Abbas I. After Farhad Khan’s death in 1598, Mir `Imad moved to Qazvin and the following year settled in Isfahan, where he became one of the most famous masters of nasta`liq script at the court of `Abbas (see ISLAMIC ART, §III, 2(iv)(b)). Mir `Imad vied for the monarch’s favour with the calligrapher `Ali Riza, who is said to have arranged his rival’s assassination; he was buried in the mosque of Maqsud Beg. Mir `Imad continued the tradition of MIR `ALI HUSAYNI HARAVI and penned many books, epistles and single folios with Persian quatrains written on the diagonal. Specimens of his work are included in the Leningrad Album (St Petersburg, Acad. Sci., Inst. Orient. Stud., E/14) and other albums in Tehran (Royal Lib.), Paris (Bib. N.) and Istanbul (U. Lib.)."