TWO LARGE ALBUM PAGE PANELS OF NASTA'LIQ CALLIGRAPHY
India, 19th century, attributed to Muhammad Mahmud Nawar Mu'jiz

Persian manuscript on paper, the first panel with 6ll. in chalipa format in black ink nasta'liq script to the folio, the poem in praise of Nawab Mir Qutb ud-Din Ali Khan Bahadur, one of the nawabs of Masulipatam (Andhra Pradesh) ruling under the Nizams in East India, signed by the calligrapher Muhammad Mahmud Nawar, the Mu’jiz Qalam (one of the magical pen), the pale eau-de-nil ground illuminated with scrolling foliage in gold, and tazhib motifs in gold and polychromes, the outer border with polychrome floral clusters heightened in gold outlines on a cobalt blue ground, the text panel 35.5cm x 26.2cm, the folio 55.6cm x 35.5cm; and the companion panel, similar, 6ll. to the folio, the text from a sonnet by Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, the renowned 13th-century Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet, scholar, and spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, the text panel 35.5cm x 26.2cm, the folio 55.6cm x 35.5cm.