Verses on hidden love

Calligraphic panel written in black nasta'liq script with a painting depicting foxes and a landscape, created by Mir 'Imad (al-Hasani) al-Qazvini who worked in Iran, Afghanistan and India. A number of letters and words are repeated in this calligraphic panel, so as to create a playful composition that fills up the entirety of the text panel. This calligraphic game -- itself a device of dissimulation -- echoes the contents of the poem. Below the text panel and outside the text frames, a minute inscription written in black ink appears written horizontally on the beige paper decorated with gold flecks. The inscription attributes the calligraphy to the "qiblah of the calligraphers" (qiblat al-khattatin), Mir 'Imad Qazvini. The calligrapher can be identified as Mir 'Imad al-Hasani (d. 1615). He 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). It is possible that this particular calligraphy was decorated by the painting of two foxes and pasted to a gold-flecked paper under the Mughals. A square seal impression in the lower right corner bearing the epithet Bahadur and the date 1186/1772-3 supports the hypothesis that this piece belonged to a Mughal patron by the second half of the 18th century at the latest. Di shana zada an mah kham-i gisura / Bar chahra nahad zulf 'anbar bura / Pushid bi-din hila ruh-i niku-ra / Ta har ka na mahram nishinashad ura Dimensions of Written Surface: 13.6 (w) x 24.3 (h) cm Other calligraphies by, or attributed to, Mir 'Imad in 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, 1-90-154.162. This calligraphic panel executed in black nasta'liq script on a ground decorated with flowers painted in gold and topped by a painting depicting two foxes in a landscape describes the subterfuges of the beloved. Omitting the unrelated verses in the upper right corner, the poem reads: Yesterday that moon (the beloved) brushed the curls of her hair / Over her face, she placed her amber-smelling hair / By this stratagem, she covered her beautiful visage / So that he who is not allowed cannot see her Script: nasta'liq 1-86-154.167