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Persian Miniature Painting: Mashrabiyya

"A City Dweller Desecrates a Garden" from the Haft Awrang of Jami1.	Detail - "Court Scene in a Garden".signed by Abdollah-e Mozahheb and dated 15812
A Mashrabiyya is a decorative wooden screen that we commonly see in the miniature art of Khorasan. Here we see that the design in the Painter D miniature and in the miniature signed by Abdollah-e Mozahheb are so lose as to be the work of the same hand where as we can see that the two below are not close at all.

"A City Dweller Desecrates a Garden" from the Haft Awrang of Jami3.	Detail - "A Prince Entertained".attributed to Abdol'-Aziz 4
The painting on the left is from the Haft Awrang of Jami and is in the Welch Painter D group. Based on this comparison I am inclined to suggest that Painter D and Abdol'-Aziz were two very different people. Also please note how the prince in "A City Dweller Desecrates a Garden" from the Haft Awrang of Jami has a turban tied as we would expect in a prince painted by Abdollah-e Mozahheb.

Detail "Solomon and Bilqis Sit Together and Converse Frankly" 5 attributed to Abdollah-e Mozahheb 6 (By Soudavar.)	Detail A Vision Of Angels from the Haft Awrang of Jami circa 1560. Attributed here to Shaykh Muhammad.
At the court of Soltan it was common to depict a little boy at the window. here we can see two similar images but several differences stand out. Please note the circle star pattern in the Mashrabiyya. The work of Shaykh Muhammad is much more graceful than that of Abdollah-e Mozahheb or even Bihzad for that matter.

Persian Miniature Painting: Mashrabiyya
Detail - "Court Scene in a Garden".signed by Abdollah-e Mozahheb and dated 15817

Persian Miniature Painting: Mashrabiyya by Bihzad
Detail Execution Before a King attributed to Bihzad. 8

The pattern of the Mashrabiyya is the key to identification but where did Abdollah-e Mozahheb get the design? Did he originate it or is it taken from an earlier artist? In this case the answer is simple it derives from Bihzad. Bihzad was one of the three greatest Persian Artists. However Bihzad must have died before Abdollah-e Mozahheb began his career so how did Abdollah-e Mozahheb become so well versed in the style of Bihzad?

I am becoming convinced that Abdollah was a student of the Persian Master Duust Muhammad. Their careers overlap and make such a link possible. Duust Muhammad was a student of the Herati master Bihzad. He went to Kabul in the 1540s and was their at a time that Abdollah may well have been there. Another artist who was also a student of Duust Muhammad and was then an artist at the Court of Ibrahim Mirza was Shaykh Muhammad.

"Haftvad and the Worm" signed " Dust Muhammad painted this"circa 1640.

Please compare the Mashrabiyya on the right by Duust Muhammad with that of Bihzad above. In this area Duust Muhammad exceeded the skill of his teacher.

Persian Miniature Painting: Mashrabiyya by Shaykh Muhammad.

Detail Yusuf and the Maidens. from the Haft Awrang of Jami circa 1560.

Attributed to Shaykh Muhammad.

Detail Yusuf and the Maidens. from the Haft Awrang of Jami circa 1560.

Attributed to Shaykh Muhammad..

Detail A Vision Of Angels from the Haft Awrang of Jami circa 1560.

Attributed here to Shaykh Muhammad.

Persian Miniature Painting: Mashrabiyya by Ali Ashgar

Detail Yusuf Gives a Royal Banquet from the Haft Awrang of Jami circa 1560.

Attributed here to Ali Ashgar.

Please note the alignment of the six pointed stars and their relationship to the heavy lines. This is clearly a very different technique than the ones attributed to Abdollah-e Mozahheb, Bihzad, or Shaykh Muhammad above.