Mir Musavvir

Nightmare Zahhaka tyrant, from the Shahnameh by Mir Musavvir, private collection, 1525-35

Mir Musavvir (fl. 1510-48, died 1555) was a Persian illustrator and painter.

Mir Musavvir was born in either Termez or Badakhshan in the late 15th century. According to the contemporary chronicler Dust Muhammad, he and Aqa Mirak worked together closely in service to the Safavid royal library who did wall paintings for the palace of Prince Sam Mirza and illustrations for royal manuscripts of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh ('Book of kings') and Nizami's Khamsa ('Five poems').^[1] Manuchihr Enthroned of the Shahnameh is signed on a courtier's turban, and a verse couplet written in the iwan of Nushirwan and the Owls, made for the Shah between 1539 and 1543, says that it was penned by Mir Musavvir in 1539-40. A portrait of the steward Sarkhan Beg is also inscribed as his work.^[1]

References

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