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Folio from the Kevorkian Album, ca. 1540
Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Calligraphy signed by Mir cAli Haravi
Ink, gold, and colors on paper; 15 1/4 x 10 1/8 in. (38.7 x 25.6 cm)
Purchase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian Foundation Gift, 1955 (55.121.10.7v)

This panel of calligraphy conforms closely to the type probably established by the celebrated calligrapher Sultan cAli about forty or fifty years earlier. The border illumination is signed by the artist Daulat, who executed paintings and marginalia for three generations of Mughal emperors, from Akbar to Shah Jahan. Mir cAli was both the calligrapher and author of the lines written here:

One with the eye of gazelles
hunted the bird of my heart,
Robbed me of steadfastness,
robbed me, poor lover, of rest.
Counsel and good advice
is no longer of use—
There is no use anymore,
friends, in counseling me!
The poor cAli.

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    Folio from the Kevorkian Album, ca. 1540
    Bukhara, Uzbekistan
    Calligraphy signed by Mir cAli Haravi
    Ink, gold, and colors on paper; 15 1/4 x 10 1/8 in. (38.7 x 25.6 cm)
    Purchase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian Foundation Gift, 1955 (55.121.10.7v)