English: Five Qizilbash visiting a sheikh, Isfahan, Iran, workshop of Mu'in Mosavver, ca. 1680

Isfahan, Iran, workshop of Mu'in Mosavver, ca. 1680

Ink, gouache and gold on paper.

Sight: 24.5 x 15 cm per sheet

Painting: 17.5 x 14.2 cm

A late 17th century illustrated folio from a popular Persian text praising shah Ismael 1st, Isfahan, Iran, circle of Mu'in Musawwir, circa 1680 Related Works: Many folios from these manuscripts are now held in several public collections, including the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv. nos. 28/1986, 84/1980, and 27/1986), the Nasser David Khalili Collection, and the Art and History Collection.

This painting comes from a version of the History of the Ornament of the World Shah Ismail or Tarikh-e alam-ara-ye Shah Esmail; an anonymous work that allegorically depicts the life of the first Safavid king. Several contemporary copies from the seventeenth century have been identified, see Eleanor Sims, "A Dispersed Late-Safavid copy of the Tarikh-i Jahangusha-yi Khaqan Sahibqiran," published in Sheila Canby (ed.), Safavid Art and Architecture, Cambridge, 2002. At least three copies of this text, or close variations, are illustrated by Mu'in Musavvir, although only one is signed by him. The paintings in these latter manuscripts are therefore traditionally attributed to him.