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2019714504
DLC
eng
DLC
Siyah Mashq
19th century
1 volume ;
20.3 (w) x 31.7 (h) cm
Qajar era Siyah Mashq Calligraphy based on Nasta'liq script 19th cent. Shekastah (Broken) Script.
A number of other siyah mashq sheets are held in the Library of Congress. See in particular 1-84-154.44, 1-87-154.45, 1-84-154.46, 1-87-154.142, and 1-86-154.144.
As an established genre, practice sheets abided to certain rules of formal compositions, largely guided by rhythm and repetition (Safwat 1996, 32). Although siyah mashq sheets survive from ca. 1600, they seem to have been a particularly popular genre during the second half of the 19th century, i.e., during the artistic revival spearheaded by the Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah, who reigned 1848-1896 (Mehdi Zadeh 1369/1950: 44-45 and 54-55; and Diba and Ekhtiar 1998: 239-41).
Dimensions of Written Surface: 13.3 (w) x 21.6 (h) cm
These sheets -- known as siyah mashq (lit. black practice) in Persian -- were entirely covered with writing as a means to practice calligraphy and conserve paper. In time, they became collectible items and thus were signed and dated (this fragment, however, does not appear signed or dated). Many fragments such as this one were provided with a variety of decorative borders and pasted to sheets ornamented with plants or flowers painted in gold. For example, a number of siyah mashq sheets executed at the turn of the 17th century by the great Iranian master of nasta'liq script, 'Imad al-Hasani (d. 1024/1615), were decorated in gold, preserved in albums (muraqqa'at), and provided with illumination by Muhammad Hadi ca. 1160-1172/1747-1759 (Akimushkin 1996: 65, 70, 87, and 91).
This calligraphic exercise is executed in black ink on a background painted in brown. It is provided with a purple frame decorated with gold vines and a second plain pink frame. The framed composition is pasted onto a thicker blue sheet decorated with gold flower sprays.
This calligraphic practice sheet includes a number of diagonal words and letters used in combinations facing upwards and downwards on the folio. The common Persian cursive script nasta'liq is favored here over the more "broken" shikastah script.
Script: nasta'liq
Calligraphy, Arabic.
Calligraphy, Persian.
Manuscripts, Persian
Washington (D.C.)
Arabic script calligraphy
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic manuscripts
Nasta'liq
Shikastah
Iran
Library of Congress
African and Middle Eastern Division
Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
amedscd
2019714504
https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.132
1-85-154.88
amed/ggcalligraphy