SIGNED MISHKIN QALAM, OTTOMAN AKKA AND HAIFA, DATED AH 1303 / 1885-6 AD AND AH 1321 / 1903-4 AD

Mirza Husayn Isfahani (1826 - 6 December 1912) was given the title mishkin qalam ('The musk-scented pen') by Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar who also appointed him as tutor to Crown Prince Muzaffar Mirza. At this time he became a follower of the Baha'i faith and travelled to the Ottoman territories to follow the spiritual leader Baha'ullah, who he first met in Edirne. Although stemming from the 19th century Babism movement and the main Shi'a branch of Islam, the Baha’í Faith has gained a wide recognition as an independent religion advocating the oneness of humanity under a single God, guided by the teachings of Baha’ullah (‘Glory of God’).

Mishkin Qalam (1826-1912) spent time in Istanbul and was imprisoned for a time at the request of the Persian Ambassador to the Porte. The Ottomans later exiled Mishkin Qalam to Cyprus. When the island was taken over by the British in 1878, Mishkin Qalam served as Persian secretary until 1885-6 when he travelled to join Baha'ullah in exile in Akka. Of the panels in the present lot, the face-shaped composition dates from the first period. A further example dated 1890 is in the National Baha’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois and is published by Julie Oeming Badiee and Heshmatollah Badiee, 'The Calligraphy of Mishkín Qalam', The Journal of Baha'i Studies, 1991, p.15, fig.12. They suggest that the symbolism of the face has its roots in Iranian sufism, especially the belief of the Hurufiyya Sufis that the shape of the human face was reminiscent of certain letters. The number 9, which appears in both eyes, was also of significance to the Baha’í faith. It is the total of all the numbers assigned to the word 'Baha’í' when written in Arabic characters, and has symbolic value as the last in the succession of numbers before the cycle starts again (Badiee and Badiee, op.cit., p.16). Another similar composition dated to AH 1302⁄1884-5 AD is in the Society for Persian Letters and Arts, Landegg Academy, Switzerland (Mishkín Qalam: XIX Century Artist & Calligrapher, Darmstadt, 1992, no.83).

Following Baha'ullah's death in 1892, Mishkin Qalam travelled to Syria, Egypt and India. He finally settled in Haifa until his death in 1912. It is during this later period of his life that one - and possibly both - of the bird compositions in this lot were copied. The cockerel was symbolic of the announcement of a new dawn with the coming of Baha'ullah. The large composition on blue is typical of Mishkim Qalam's work, such as another example in the Landegg Academy which is also on blue dyed paper (Mishkín Qalam, op.cit., no.40). The third composition is not signed by him and includes an unusual landscape, with a lion and an equestrian figure, at the bottom of the page. Though more unusual and unsigned, it bears comparison with a final example in the Landegg Academy, which depicts a peacock sat in a tree (Mishkín Qalam, op.cit., no.21). A calligraphic panel by Mishkin Qalam depicting a pair of birds was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 167.