Page 79 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

A FOLIO FROM A ROYAL ALBUM MADE FOR SHAH
JAHAN, PROBABLY THE LATE SHAH JAHAN ALBUM

59
A NASTA'LIQ QUATRAIN
SIGNED MIR 'ALI, MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1650-58
Persian manuscript on paper, with 4ll. of elegant black nasta'liq in red-outlined clouds reserved against
gold ground with flowing polychrome floral illumination, a line below signed faqir Mir 'Ali, laid down
between a pink border with gold floral illumination and two further minor borders in blue and gold, on
wide margins decorated with elegant floral sprays depicting a varity of plants, minor areas of smudging
and flaking, mounted on plain card
Folio 15 x 10¬in. (38 x 27.1cm.)
£60,000-80,000 US$85,000-110,000
€70,000-92,000
PROVENANCE:
Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection
Christian Humann (Pan-Asian Collection)
Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection, New York
European Private Collection
Albums made for the Emperor Shah Jahan and his father Jahangir are celebrated for the refined
quality of the border decoration. The borders paid tribute to the royal patron's growing concern with
the natural world - they actively encouraged artists of their ateliers to study and observe all aspects
of it. The European herbaria of the early 17th century that were bought into the Mughal court by
Jesuit missionaries provided ample inspiration. Under Jahangir (r.1604-28) artists such as Manohar
and Mansur were encouraged to record animals, plants and birds with great attention to detail. It is
claimed in Jahangir's Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, that more than one hundred flower paintings were done by
the artist Mansur in Kashmir alone (M.C. Beach, E. Fischer and B.N. Goswamy (eds.), Indian Painting
from 1500-1575, Zurich, 2011, p.257). Under Shah Jahan, this keen observation was applied to the
borders of albums, where artists demonstrated the great precision and naturalism in which they had
become practiced.
A number of albums with closely related floral borders were produced under the patronage of Shah
Jahan. These include the Minto, Wantage and Kevorkian albums – all now identified by the names of
former Western owners. However our folio relates most closely to another, the now dispersed Late
Shah Jahan album, probably assembled between 1650-58. In that album the calligraphic borders are
usually floral, and certainly relate closely to the others mentioned above. However the spacing of the
flowers is different – they are sparser and more delicate than those of the other albums. In addition,
particular floral species are repeated on a single border unlike the Minto, Wantage and Kevorkian
albums, where each type of flower is used only once.
The calligraphy on the folio is signed by Mir 'Ali al-Katib (d.1556). Mir ‘Ali is often mentioned by Safavid
sources as amongst the most important nasta'liq calligraphers of all time. Various authorities attribute
the codifying of the aesthetic rules of nasta'liq script to him. Born in Herat circa 1476, he was later
taken to Bukhara by the Shaybanid ruler 'Ubaydullah Khan after his capture of Herat in AH 935/1528-
29 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol. III, Teheran, 1348 sh. p.494). His recorded
works are dated between AH 914/1508-09 AD and AH 951/1544-45 AD. The works of leading Persian
calligraphers were particularly prized at the Mughal court and Mir ‘Ali was amongst those particularly
admired by Jahangir. A large number of qit’as signed by him found their way into important Mughal
albums, and he is the calligrapher responsible for most of the specimens in the late Shah Jahan album.
Two very similar folios sold in these Rooms include, 9 October 2014, lot 136, and more recently 28
October 2020, lot 74.

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