THREE MURAQQA' ALBUM PAGES WITH CALLIGRAPHIC COMPOSITIONS
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Mughal India, 17th century and later

Comprising three album pages of Persian manuscripts on paper, one folio with a mashq composition in black ink shikasteh nasta’liq, signed Abdul Rashid, numbered, with a faded date in the lower right corner reading 1030 AH (1620) or 1130 AH (1717), set within concentric polychrome narrow borders, and red and white rules, laid on pink card, the text panel 18cm x 9.2cm, the folio 31.6cm x 21.3cm; another with 10ll. of black ink nasta’liq script, the text a mix of poetry and prose in praise of the declaration of faith (shahada), and the name of the Prophet, set in cloudbands within a gold ground sprinkled with polychrome floral decoration, within black and pink double borders, and blue, black, red, gold, green, and orange rules, laid on cream card, the text panel 19.3cm x 10.5cm, the folio 32.5cm x 20cm; and the third with 12ll. of fine black ink nasta’liq script, the text a courtly declaration of total submission to the will of the King, signed Abdul Rashid Al Daylami, set in cloudbands within a gold, red and blue floral field, in concentric borders and rules, the dark blue inner border with fine sinuous floral decoration in gold, the polychrome outer border with naturalistically-shaded flowers in a scrolling green frieze, the text panel 20.2cm x 10.5cm, the folio 32.5cm x 20.2cm.