Ahmad Musa

Background

Ahmad Musa was born around 1301, in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran. There are no exact data about his childhood and relatives.

Education

Aḥmad Mūsā is said to have learned painting from his father.

Career

Despite the prominence given to him in modern scholarly writing, he remains a vague figure. All evidence which can be called “documentary” stems from a single source — the album of Bahrām Mīrzā, now in the Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul. Compiled in 1554 by Bahrām’s court librarian, Dūst Moḥammad, the album contains both a prefatory essay concerning the evolution of calligraphy and painting and samples to illustrate the essay’s points.

Dūst Moḥammad briefly described the legendary past of the art of painting and then turned to the reign of the Il-Khanid ruler, Abū Saʿīd. Under his patronage, Aḥmad Mūsā “withdrew the covering from the face of painting and invented the kind of painting which is "current at the present time.”

As examples of Aḥmad Mūsā’s work, he cited two volumes on the dynastic history of the Mongols, a "Kalīla wa Demna", and a "Meʿrāǰ-nāma" copied by a certain “Mawlānā ʿAbdallāh”, who was possible to be identified with Abdallāh Ṣayrafī, a well-known calligrapher active during the reign of Abū Saʿīd. The album itself contains portions of ten paintings from a Meʿrāǰ-nāma, four of which are ascribed to Aḥmad Mūsā.

Dūst Moḥammad made Aḥmad Mūsā a key figure of 14th-century painting, suggesting links with earlier painters by mentioning that Aḥmad studied with his father, and connecting him with later trends through his pupils, two of whom were mentioned: Amir Dawlat Yār, a slave of Sultan Abū Saʿīd, and Ostād Šams-al-dīn. Thus Aḥmad Mūsā may have been active for some decades after Abū Saʿīd’s reign; his connection with Ostād Šams-al-dīn implied his survival until ca. 1360, if not later.

Dūst Moḥammad’s mention of a "Kalīla wa Demna" manuscript painted by Aḥmad Mūsā has led to the attribution to him of paintings from a fragmentary manuscript of that work preserved in an album given to Shah Ṭahmāsb, now in the Istanbul University Library. Attempts have also been made to link Aḥmad Mūsā with some of the paintings of a dispersed Šāh-nāma manuscript known after a former owner as the “Demotte” Šāh- nāma. Aḥmad Mūsā’s most famous pupil was Shams al-Dīn, who painted at the court of the Jalāyir sultans of Baghdad in the latter part of the 14th century. The artist died after 1360.

Achievements

• Ahmad Musa was famous for his paintings "Ardashir captures Ardawan", "Bahram Gur kills the wolf", "Bahram Gur tramples Azadeh", and "Faridun sees Iraj's coffin."

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Ardashir fights Bahman

  • Faridun sees Iraj's coffin

  • Rustam kills Istendiyar

  • Darab and Rastnawan fight the Rumis

  • Iskandar at Israfil (detail)

  • Bahram Gur and the Dragon

  • Ardashir captures Ardawan

  • Archangel Gabriel carries the Prophet Muhammad over the mountains

  • Bahram Gur kills the wolf

  • Iskandar enthroned

  • Afrasyab kills Navdar

  • Bahram Gur tramples Azadeh

  • Iskandar at Israfil

  • Isfandiyar approaches Gushtasp