File:Large Calligraphic Panel, Signed Mohammed Hussein Imad al-Kutab, Qajar, Persia, dated 1858.jpg

English: Large Calligraphic Panel, Signed Mohammed Hussein Imad al-Kutab, Qajar, Persia, Dated A.H. 1275/A.D.1858

Signed Mohammed Hussein Imad al-Kutab

ink and gouache heightened with gold on paper, laid down on stout brown paper with margins of illuminated flowers and animals, the calligraphy displaying the entire gamut of calligraphic styles including: ta'liq, nasta'liq, naskhi, shikasteh, tuluth, architectural kufic, seal kufic, tughras and other decorative styles, separated into different panels of text against gold cloud bands with a scrolling foliate motif in gold, an oval portrait of a courtier at the apex

This panel of text is a remarkable record of the skill of the calligraphers flourishing under Nasir al-Din Shah, and particularly his Royal Scribe.

Muhammad Husayn Shirazi is likely to have been the Royal Scribe of that name at the court of Nasir al-Din and Muzaffar al-Din Shah Qajar and whose nasta'liq is noted by Bayani. His recorded works, many of which are kept in the Golestan Palace Library in Tehran, are dated between 1271/1854 and 1316/1898-9 (see Bayani 1348, pp.689-94). There is a further contemporary calligrapher of the same name who signed as 'Mushkin Qalam,' a title which was not given officially to the royal scribe but is unlikely to have been enjoyed by any other calligrapher. As this Muhammad Husayn Shirazi is not celebrated with his own biography it is likely that these two calligraphers are one and the same.