A NASTA'LIQ QUATRAIN SIGNED 'ALI REZA ABBASI, SAFAVID, LATE 16TH CENTURY

Persian manuscript on paper, 4 lines of text in large nasta'liq script in black ink within cloud bands against a finely-illuminated ground of interlacing polychrome flowers, signature in lower corner piece, laid down on an album page bordered in red, brown and deep green illuminated borders, with outer margins filled with large fruiting stems.
20.5 by 34 cm.

'Ali Reza 'Abbasi is recorded as a calligrapher at the court of Shah 'Abbas and is one of the most famous calligraphers of the Safavid period (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, vol.II, Tehran 1346 sh., pp.456-61). Album pages signed by him were exhibited in the British Museum exhibition Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran (Sheila R. Canby, Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran, exhibition catalogue, London, 2009, no.6, p.44). Shah 'Abbas appointed 'Ali Reza head of Isfahan's Royal Library in 1598 and he was responsible for the inscriptions on famous monuments including the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad and the Sheikh Lutfullah Mosque in Isfahan (ibid, pp.28-36).