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Manuscript/Mixed Material Verses by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi

About this Item

Title

  • Verses by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi

Names

  • Muhammad Husayn al-Katib

Created / Published

  • 998/1590

Headings

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

Notes

  • -  Verses by India's Persian poet, Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d. 1325) on the permanence of love, written by calligrapher Muhammad Husayn al-Katib of Persia and India in Nasta'liq script 16th Cent.
  • -  An hama shakal khush-i dilkash ka dar gulzar ast / Khar dar chashmam agar za anha yaki chun yar ast / Miravam sad bar dar gulzar u miayam birun / Vaz parishani namidanam ka gul dar bar ast / Khak-i Kisra gul shud u taj-i murassa' khak shud / Nam-i 'ashiq hamchanan bar har dar u divar ast
  • -  Dimensions of Written Surface: 21.3 (w) cm x 29.2 (h)
  • -  In the lower left corner and on the two horizontal lines of text below the central panel, the calligrapher Muhammad Husayn al-Katib ("the writer") has signed his work with his diminutives and his request for God's forgiveness of his sins. He also states that he completed the calligraphic panel in the year 998/1590. The calligrapher Muhammad Husayn either appears to have been active during the reign of the Safavid Shah 'Abbas I (r. 1587-1629) or could be identified as the calligrapher active in Shah Isma'il II's (r. 1776-77) atelier until he found employment in India (Huart 1972: 230 and 319).
  • -  The text panel is framed by a number of other verses held in registers on a pink or blue ground painted with gold designs, and is pasted to a larger sheet of blue paper with deer and flowers painted in gold. The composition is backed with cardboard for strengthening.
  • -  This calligraphic fragment includes a number of verses written by the poet Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d. 1325), whose name is noted in the upper right corner of the central text panel (li-Amir Khusraw). The verses describe the permanence of love as a flower bud in perpetual blossom, and read:
  • -  This so beautiful, pleasing one in the rose garden / (May God place) a thorn in my eyes if one of them (the flowers) is similar to you / I enter and leave the garden a hundred times / (and) because of my distress I do not know which flower is in bloom / The dust of Kisra became a flower and the bejeweled crown turned to dust / The name of the lover still (remains) on every door and wall
  • -  Script: nasta'liq
  • -  1-85-154.89

Medium

  • 1 volume ; 39 (w) cm x 27.7 (h)

Repository

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

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2019714622

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:

Muhammad Husayn Al-Katib. Verses by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi. 998, 1590. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714622/.

APA citation style:

Muhammad Husayn Al-Katib. (1590) Verses by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi. 998. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2019714622/.

MLA citation style:

Muhammad Husayn Al-Katib. Verses by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi. 998, 1590. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2019714622/>.