THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED 'ALI AL-KATIB AND 'ALI AL-MUDHAHHIB, SAFAVID IRAN, 16TH CENTURY; THE MARGINS SIGNED MUHAMMAD BAQIR AL-ISFAHANI AL-HUSAYNI AL-IMAMI AND DATED AH 1[0]77 / 1666-67 AD

This intriguing calligraphic panel has two signatures, one by the famous (Mir) 'Ali al-Katib, the master calligrapher from Herat whose work was patronised by the Timurid, Safavid and Uzbek rulers, and one by a certain 'Ali al-Mudhahhib. Given the discrepancy in status between the two calligraphers, it is possible that the present calligraphy is from the hand of 'Ali al-Mudhahhib after a model by 'Ali al-Katib. This appears to be supported by the existence of a manuscript of the Ruba'iyyat of 'Umar Khayyam signed by 'Ali al-Katib and sold Sotheby's London, 22 April 1999, lot 31, which was completed by the otherwise unrecorded 'Ali al-Mudhahhib.

Folios from an album with comparable margins to the present folio were sold at Drouot, Paris, 23 June 1982, lots 8, 19, 20, and 25. One of the margins in that album is signed Muhammad Baqir Imami and dated AH 1177⁄1763-4 AD. Anatoly Ivanov considered the folios from the Drouot album to be the work of the same Muhammad Baqir who worked on the famous St Petersburg Muraqqa', and who may also have used the nisba Isfahani (Anatoly Ivanov, "The Compiling and Decoration of the Album" in The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Milan, 1996, p.29). This raises the intriguing possibility that the date on the present margin is erroneous or even tampered with and should read AH 1177, rather than AH 1077.