Me Emad Ghazvini

A Mir Emad album sheet on display in the Agha Khan Museum in Toronto , Canada

Mir Emad Hassani Ghazvini ( listen ^{? / I} Persian میرعماد حسنی قزوینی, [ Miɾ ɛmɑd ɛ hæsæni jɛ ɢæzvini ]; * 1554 in Qazvin ; † August 15, 1615 in Isfahan ) was a prominent Persian calligrapher and calligraphy teacher and the most respected calligrapher of the Nastaliq script.

biography

In childhood, Mir Emad learned the basics of Islamic calligraphy . In his youth he traveled to Tabriz to study with the then famous master, Molla Mohammad Hosseyn Tabrizi .

Mir Emad practiced for a long time from the works of other masters such as Baba Shah Isfahani , Soltan Ali Mashhadi and especially Mir Ali Heravi .

Mir Emad traveled to the Ottoman Empire and the Hejaz from Tabriz and then returned to Iran. On his return he became the clerk of the library of Farhad Chan Qaramanlu, a general of Abbas I in Khorasan and Herat . After Farhad Chan's murder, he went to Qazvin and in 1599 moved to the capital, Isfahan. This year was the twelfth year of Abbas I's reign and the height of the Safavid power and splendor , so artists and craftsmen moved to Isfahan to pursue careers. Mir Emad wrote praises in the Nastaliq script and sent it to King Abbas I. The king liked the praise and invited Mir Emad to the court . He lived in Isfahan for 16 years and created many works there. Mir Emad made changes to the rules of the Nastaliq script.

Besides Alireza Abbassi , Mir Emad was the most prominent calligrapher at court. But later the two artists became rivals and opponents. Over time Abbassi was favored by the king, which increasingly frustrated Mir Emad and led him to insult the king too sarcastically in his poems; because Mir Emad felt superior to Abbassi. Through this behavior and the intrigues of other courtiers, the king took the Sunni denomination of Mir Emads - the Safavid Empire was a Shiite state - as a pretext to have him killed. Finally, the king ordered the leader of the Shahssawan tribe of Qazvin, Maqsudbeyk Ghazvini, to kill Mir Emad. One night when Mir Emad went to the bath, Maqsudbeyk killed him with the help of the mob. Since the king was angry with Mir Emad, no one dared bury his body. Only after a few days did his apprentice, Abu Turab Isfahani, bury him . After the murder of Mir Emad, the king felt repentance. However, no ancient sources mention that Mir Emad was killed by the order of Abbas I and some believe it to be a legend. His tomb is in the Maqsudbeyk Mosque in Isfahan.

Mir Emad had a son named Mirza Ebrahim and a daughter named Goharschad . Both were skilled calligraphers.

According to the city names that Mir Emad mentioned in his texts and books and according to the ancient documents, Mir Emad traveled to Aleppo , Damascus , Hejaz, the Ottoman Empire and perhaps Mecca . He had also made domestic trips to Isfahan, Qazvin, Semnan , Damghan , Tabaristan, and Khorasan.

Works

A chalipa by Mir Emad

Mir Emad's calligraphy was famous not only in Iran and at the Safavid court, but also at the court of the Mughal and Ottoman Empire. It is said that his works were exchanged for gold and when he died he was so rich that the then vizier could not afford to buy Mir Emad's house. He trained hundreds of students and most of them also became prominent calligraphers. Mir Emad purified the style of the former calligraphers and removed impurities from the Nastaliq script. He changed the cut of the letter and word parts up to the golden ratio in the Nastaliq script. When examining Mir Emad's works, it was found that this pattern exists as a model for all letters and words. Mir Emad adhered to these styles not only for the letter and word parts, but also for the line spacing and text frame. He raised the Chalipa writing and Qatenegari to an art, independent of the calligraphy of the Nastaliq script.

Many of Mir Emad's works are in museums in Iran and other countries. Some works are in the private collections. Recently, Italian and American aesthetes printed a collection of Mir Emad's works. The collection was made available to art lovers through the Metropolitan Museum .

The works illustrated by Mir Emad

Some of Mir Emad's works were:

plant	poet	Date of illustration	museum
Taklamat on Nofahat	Abd ol-Qafur Lari	1584	Golestan Palace
Tuhfat ul-ahrār (The Gift of the Free)	Djami	1607	Golestan Palace
Golschan-e-Ras (The Flower Garden of the Secret)	Mahmoud Shabestari	-----	-----
Dīwān	Hafez	-----	Golestan Palace
Golestan	Saadi	-----	Golestan Palace
Bustan	Saadi	-----	The library, the museum and the archive of documents of Majles
Bustan	Saadi	1603	The Afghan State Collection
Guy-o-Tschogan-Ode (Ball and Bat-Ode)	Mahmoud Arefi Heravi	-----	The Afghan State Collection
Tohfat ol-Moluk (The Gift of the Kings)	-----	1610	Sarkari Library of Rampur
Asma al-Hossna (The Good Names)	Sheikh Mohammad Heravi Tabnejad	-----	Sarkari Library of Rampur
Haft Aurang (Seven Thrones)	Djami	1564	Sarkari Library of Rampur
Ressale ye Nassayeh (The Book of Advice)	-----	1596	-----
Monajat name	ʿAbdallāh al-Ansārī	-----	Sarkari Library of Rampur
Sinat ol-Moluk (Decoration of the Kings)	-----	-----	Sarkari Library of Rampur
Pand name	Djami	-----	Malek National Library and Museum
Monajat name	ʿAbdallāh al-Ansārī	-----	The collection of Dr. Abdollah Forouhar
Detention tape	Hassan Kashani	-----	The collection of Jafari Adib Esfahani
Robā'īyāt	Omar Chayyam	-----	The collection of Ali Türk Geldi (The Turkish Ambassador to Iran)
The collection of works	Me Emad	1603 and 1609	Golestan Palace
The collection of works	Me Emad	-----	Bibliothèque nationale de France
The collection of works	Me Emad	1604	The Istanbul University Library
The collection of works	Me Emad	1594 and 1615	The Istanbul University Library
An inscription	Hafez	-----	Tekiyeh Mir in Isfahan

Web links

• Me Emad Ghazvini . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
• Union List of Artist Names : id 500116671

Individual evidence

1. ↑ میرعماد حسنی
2. ↑ استاد خط ... میر عماد ( Memento of 7 January 2014 Internet Archive )
3. ↑ http://www.tebyan.net/newmobile.aspx/Comment/index.aspx?pid=221606
4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ باستان شناسی - خوشنویس (دوره صفوی) ( Memento from December 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.