Manuscript/Mixed Material Quatrain on true knowledge
About this Item
Title
- Quatrain on true knowledge
Names
- Imad al-Hasani
Created / Published
- early 17th century
Headings
- - Calligraphy, Arabic
- - Calligraphy, Persian
- - Manuscripts, Persian--Washington (D.C.)
- - Iran
- - Afghanistan
- - India
- - Arabic script calligraphy
- - Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
- - Islamic calligraphy
- - Islamic manuscripts
- - Nasta'liq
- - Poetry
Notes
- - Persian quatrain on true knowledge written in black Nasta'liq script by the calligrapher (Mir) 'Imad al-Hasani in the 17th Cent.
- - Below the quatrain, the calligrapher (Mir) 'Imad al-Hasani has signed his work with his name and a number of diminutives, as well as a request for God's forgiveness. Mir 'Imad (d. 1615) was born in 1552, spent time in Herat and Qazvin, and finally settled in Isfahan (then capital of Safavid Persia), where, as a result of his implication in court intrigues, he was murdered in 1615. He was a master of nasta'liq script, whose works were admired and copied by his contemporaries, and later collected by the Mughals (Welch et al 1987: 32-36).
- - Dar khakh-i Baylaqan rasidam bi-'abidi / Guftam mara bi-tarbiyat az jahl pak kun / Gufta buru chu khak tahammul kun ay faqih / Ya har cha khanda hama dar zir-i khak kun
- - Dimensions of Written Surface: 8.5 (w) x 15.7 (h) cm
- - I arrived at a worshipper's in the area of Baylaqan. / I said: "With tutoring purify me from ignorance." / He said: "Oh, Thoughtful One, go, because, like the earth, you can withstand all, / Or bury everything that you have read under the soil."
- - Many works in international collections are signed by him (inter alia, Safwat 1996, cat. nos. 53 and 62; and Lowry and Beach 1988: no. 456), although whether all these pieces are by his hand remains uncertain. Other calligraphies bearing his name in the collections of the Library of Congress include: 1-84-154.3, 1-84-154.43, 1-85-154.72, 1-85-154.77, 1-87-154.160, and 1-99-106.13 R.
- - These verses show how the poet sought out spiritual teaching or tutoring (tarbiyat) from a wise man, who responded that learned knowledge is discardable. Baylaqan was a city in the province of Azarbaijan known for its purifying waters.
- - This calligraphic fragment provides an iambic pentameter quatrain, or ruba'i, written in black nasta'liq script. The text is outlined in cloud bands filled with blue and placed on a gold background. In the upper right corner, a gold decorative motif fills in the triangular space otherwise left empty by the intersection of the rectangular frame and the diagonal lines of text. The verses read:
- - Script: nasta'liq
- - 1-90-154.162
Medium
- 1 volume ; 8.5 (w) x 15.7 (h) cm
Repository
- Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2019714692
Online Format
- image