Calligraphy leaf from the 1600's, with a Shi' invocation

Source:  Annemarie Schimmel, with the assistance of Barbara Rivolta, Islamic Calligraphy (New York:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993), p. 41; scan by FWP, Sept. 2001

"Leaf of calligraphy. India, Kashmir or Deccan, 17th century.Written in Nasta`liq by Muhammad Salih, "the scribe," with the Shia invocation Nadi 'Aliyyan. Ink, colors, and gold on paper. 12 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (31.1 x 21.6 cm). Purchase, Richard S. Perkins Gift, 1986 (1896.109.2)."  From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum.

A Shi'ite invocation of 'Ali, copied for a Sufi patron

Source: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/search/LotDetail.asp?sid=&intObjectID=4351201&SE=CMWCAT03+1283365+%2D1428290373+&QR=M+1+58+Aqc0000900+1226374++Aqc0000900+&entry=india&SU=1&RQ=True&AN=59
(downloaded Sept. 2004)

"WASIYA 'ALI. INDIA, DATED AH 1316/1898-9 AD. Arabic manuscript on paper, 8ff. each with 7ll. of black nasta'liq in clouds with blue, red and green interstices, gold floral design and similar decorated borders within green and pink rules, illuminated frontispiece, lavishly decorated opening page with gold, blue and black illumination extending into margin, colophon on final page with 9ll. of fine black nasta'liq with name of patron, Sayyid Shah Muhiyy al-Din Ahmad al-'Alawi, scribe Muhammad Nazir al-Ram Fawri, and date 1316, in green binding with red spine. Folio 9¾ x 6¾in. (24.5 x 17cm.)."

"Lot Notes: A prayerbook in Arabic about 'Ali and his family. The manuscript was copied for a Sufi, Sayyid Shah Muhiyy al-Din Ahmad al-'Alawi son of Sayyid Shah Nizam al-Din Husayn al-'Alawi al-Chishti al-Qadiri and copied by the servant at the shrine of [Nizam al-Din ?] Muhammad Nazir al-Din al-Ram Fawri in 1316/1898-9."