Emāmī Esfahānī

Emāmī Esfahānī, a family of monumental inscriptionists in the 17^th–18^th centuries (11^th–12^th).

According to the surviving architectural inscriptions from the Safavid period*, the Emāmī family held a distinguished position in monumental calligraphy. Research indicates that Muhammad-Reza Emāmī was the progenitor of this artistic lineage. He was the father of Muhammad-Muḥsen Emāmī and the grandfather of Ali-Naqi Emāmī, all three being renowned calligraphers of thuluth and nasta‛līq during the Safavid era. For nearly a century (1630–1715/1039–1127), they were among the leading inscriptionists of major Iranian monuments.

Life and works of Muhammad-Reza Emāmī

Muhammad-Reza Emāmī Esfahānī, known as the “The Leader of Calligraphers,” was one of the distinguished calligraphers of the 17^th/11^th century. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. However, according to the dates of his surviving works, he lived during the reigns of Shah ‛Abbās I* (1588–1629/996–1038), Shah Ṣafī* (1629–1642/1038–1052), Shah ‛Abbās II* (1642–1666/1052–1077), and Shah Sulaymān* Ṣafavī (1666–1694/1077–1105). He was a student of ‛Abdul-Bāqī Tabrīzī* and Ali-Reza ‛Abbāsī*.¹

Muhammad-Reza Emāmī inscribed monumental texts in most Safavid mosques, madrasas, caravanserais, and royal buildings, some of which are said to have been destroyed by Mas‛ūd-Mīrzā Ẓell al-Sulṭān*.² Based on the surviving works, the majority of his activity was in Isfahan, where nearly two-thirds of his inscriptions remain. He also produced works in Mashhad, Qum, Qazvin, Gulpāyegān*, Īzadakh^wāst, and Naṭanz. The complex of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad contains twenty inscriptions* by Muhammad-Reza Emāmī, which constitutes the largest surviving corpus of his works. After this, the greatest number of his inscriptions is preserved in the Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī* (Imam Mosque of Isfahan) and the Ḥakīm Mosque* of Isfahan.

Muhammad-Reza Emāmī’s works in Mashhad were produced in two phases: the first set in 1649–1650/1059–1060, and the second between 1672 and 1676/1083–1087. It is therefore possible that he resided in Mashhad for about seven years. Since his latest dated inscriptions—those of 1676/1087 in the Guharshād Mosque and the Sa‛dīyya Madrasa of Mashhad—belong to this period, the note by André Godard³ suggesting that Muhammad-Reza Emāmī died in Mashhad appears to be accurate. Furthermore, in “sanatu thalātha wa thamānīn wa alf ba‛d al-hejra al-nabawīyya [1083],” he inscribed the frieze around the īvān-e maqṣūre (Maqsūre vaulted porch) of the Guharshād Mosque with the explicit signature “katabahū al-mudhneb Muhammad-Reza al-Emāmī al-Eṣfahānī”.⁴ Since a severe earthquake struck Mashhad on 14^th October 1673/15^th  Rabī‛ al-Ākher 1084⁵, it may be inferred that Emāmī spent his final years in proximity to the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza and was living in Mashhad prior to the earthquake.

According to ‛Abdul-Muhammad Irānī, Muhammad-Reza Emāmī died “in the 1080s/1670s”⁶. Manūchehr Qudsī*, however, has dated his death to after 1670/1081, since the latest inscription he had seen bore this date⁷. Yet, given that the inscriptions of 1675–1676/1086–1087 in Mashhad are also works of Muḥammad-Reza Emāmī, this assertion cannot be correct.

It appears that Muhammad-Reza Emāmī also restored and reconstructed the principal thuluth inscription of the Maqṣūre vaulted porch of the Guharshād Mosque, originally written by Bāysunghur Mīrzā and dated 1418/821.⁸ In 1673/1084, during the reign of Shah Sulaymān Ṣafavī, an earthquake damaged the dome of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza, causing several of its gilded bricks to fall. The Shah ordered that the dome be repaired and that an inscription be added to commemorate this event. The Safavid court sent Muhammad-Reza Emāmī— for the second time— to Mashhad to write the inscriptions for this phase of reconstruction of the shrine. Emāmī performed this inscription in the form of four medallions around the dome, beneath the belt inscription written by Ali-Reza ‛Abbāsī. After narrating the various events, the inscription concludes with the statement: “… ḥudūthu al-zalzalat al-‛aẓīma fī hādhehe al-baldate al-ṭayyeba al-karīma sana arba‛ wa thamānīn wa alf, wa kāna hādhehe al-tajdīd al-jadīd be-sanah setta wa thamānīn wa alf; katabahū Muhammad-Reza al-Emāmī al-Eṣfahānī”.⁹ [“…the occurrence of the great earthquake in this blessed and noble city in the year 1084/1673, and this new reconstruction was completed in the year 1086/1675; written by Muḥammad-Reza al-Emāmī al-Eṣfahānī.”]

Although Muhammad-Reza Emāmī is best known for his thuluth inscriptions, a number of nasta‛līq inscriptions by him have also survived. As Luṭfallāh Hunarfar*¹⁰ and Manūchehr Qudsī¹¹ have noted, his earliest and latest inscriptions in Isfahan are the thuluth inscription of the mihrab prayer niche (meḥrāb) of the eastern Chehel-Sutūn of the southern dome of the Masjed-e Emām*, dated 1628/1038, and the thuluth inscription of the small dome of Darb-e Emām, dated 1670/1081. Godard regarded his first inscription in Isfahan as belonging to 1629/1039 and the last to 1670/1081, adding that all his works from 1673 to 1676/1084–1087 are located in Mashhad—the city in which Muhammad-Reza Emāmī appears to have spent the final years of his life, and where, after fifty years of producing monumental inscriptions, he most likely died.¹² Accordingly, based on at least four inscriptions dated 1676/1087 by Muhammad-Reza Emāmī in Mashhad, it is certain that his death occurred after this date.

Some of the works of Muḥammad-Reza Emāmī include: the inscription of the prayer niches of the eastern Chehel-Sutūn of the southern dome of the Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī; the belt inscription of the vaulted porch and the western dome of the Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī; the portal inscription of the Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī; the portal inscription of the Masjed-e Āqā-Nūr of Isfahan; the portal inscription of the Masjed-e Shahrestān of Isfahan; the portal inscription of the mausoleum of Bābā-Qāsem* in Isfahan; the inscription of the water cistern of the Dār al-Shefāʾ Madrasa in Qum; the portal inscriptions of the Sārūtaqī caravanserai, the Sārūtaqī bazaar Chahār-Sū, and the portal of the small Sārūtaqī mosque in Isfahan; the inscription of the Emāmzāde Ebrāhīm of Sa‛īd-ābād in Gulpāyegān; the portal inscriptions of the two madrasas of Jadde-ye Kūchak and Jadde-ye Buzurg in Isfahan; the inscriptions of the ‛Abbāsī vaulted porch in the Old Courtyard (ṣaḥn-e ‛atīq) of the Raḍavī Shrine in Mashhad; the portal inscription of the Bāb-e ‛Abbāsī of the Raḍavī Shrine in Mashhad; the inscription of the Masjed-e Meṣrī in Isfahan; numerous inscriptions on the vaulted porches and the dome chamber of the Ḥakīm Mosque in Isfahan; the portal inscription of the Shafī‛īyye Madrasa in Isfahan; the portal inscription of the Masjed-e Sulaymān-Beyk in Isfahan; the portal inscription of the Masjed-e Ḥājī-Yūnas in Isfahan; the portal inscription of the entrance of the Masjed-e Lunbān* in Isfahan; the inscription of the small dome of Darb-e Emām*; the horizontal inscription of the portal of the Golden vaulted porch in the Old Courtyard of the Raḍavī Shrine in Mashhad; the inscription of the body of the dome of the Raḍavī Shrine in Mashhad; and the inscriptions of the facade and sides of the Maqṣūra vaulted porch of the Guharshād Mosque in Mashhad.¹³

Life and works of Muhammad-Muḥsen Emāmī

Muhammad-Muḥsen Emāmī, known as Ākhūnd Muḥsenā¹⁴, was the son of Muhammad-Reza Emāmī and the father of Ali-Naqī Emāmī. In his works, he usually signed his name as “Muhammad-Muḥsen,” and in a few instances simply as “Muḥsen.”

He spent many years in the service of Mīrzā Abū-turāb*, a student of Mīr “Emād*, and possessed a strong mastery of thuluth jalīī (large thuluth script). He was also among the intimates of the courts of Shah Sulaymān Ṣafavī and Shah Sulṭān-Hussein* Ṣafavī.¹⁵ Since ‛Abdul-Muhammad Irānī considered him a student of Abū-turāb, he was likely skilled in nasta‛līq as well. However, because no work in nasta‛līq by him has yet been identified, no definite judgment can be made in this regard. In fact, it should be noted that his specialization was in the thuluth script, and all surviving inscriptions by him are written in this style. The works of Muhammad-Muḥsen—all of which are located in Isfahan—are found in the following buildings: the Masjed-e Khān; the Old Jāme‛ Mosque*; the Masjed-e Īlchī*; the Nāṣerīyya Madrasa (within the Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī); the mausoleum of Shāh-Zeyd; the Masjed-e Sha‛yā-ye Nabī (within the complex of Emāmzāde Esmā‛īl) and the Masjed-e Shīshe*.

In the biographical entry on Muhammad-Muḥsen Emāmī in aḥvāl va āthār-e khushnevīsān, six works of his are listed: two pieces in thuluth jalīī and four thuluth inscriptions on monuments in Isfahan.¹⁶ This indicates that, like Muhammad-Reza Emāmī, he was active in jalīī-writing (large-script inscription), and no examples of his khafīī-writing (small-script) or manuscript transcription have been identified to date. The signature of Muhammad-Muḥsen at the end of one of the pieces published by Mahdi Bayānī¹⁷ shows that he was devoted to the style of ‛Abdul-Bāqī Tabrīzī in thuluth—a point that is quite plausible given the documented association between Muhammad-Reza Emāmī and ‛Abdul-Bāqī. As noted earlier, numerous inscriptions by Muhammad-Muḥsen survive on the historical buildings of Isfahan, including the inscription of the prayer niche of the Nāṣerīyye Madrasa dated 1684/1095, which is the latest surviving Safavid inscription in the Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī of Isfahan.

In tadhkerat al-khaṭṭāṭīn, Muhammad-Ṣāleḥ Eṣfahānī* introduces several of Muhammad-Muḥsen’s students as follows: “Mullā Zayn al-‛Ābedīn, Muhammad-Reza-Beyg, and Sheikh Raḥīm are among the students of Muḥsenā, and all of them have attained excellence.”¹⁸ It is possible that Muhammad-Reza-Byeg is the same Muhammad-Reza who wrote the inscriptions of the eastern vaulted porch of the Cahār-Bāgh Madrasa*, dated 1707/1119, whose inscriptions Mahdi Bayānī¹⁹ mistakenly attributed to Muhammad-Reza Emāmī. The name “Sheikh Raḥīm” most likely refers to ‛Abdul-Raḥīm Jazāyerī*²⁰, the calligrapher of the Cahār-Bāgh Madrasa in Isfahan.

As with the other calligraphers of the Emāmī family, no precise information is available regarding his birth and death. However, based on the signature of Ali-Naqī Emāmī in the inscription inside the mausoleum of Emāmzāde Aḥmad in Isfahan, which reads: “ʿAli-Naqī ebn al-marḥūm Muḥammad-Muḥsen al-Emāmī, on the 22^nd of Sha‛bān 1115 [26^th of December 1703],” it is certain that he had passed away before this date.

The earliest inscription bearing the signature “Muhammad-Muḥsen al-Emāmī” was performed in 1679/1090 in the Masjed-e Khān* of Isfahan, and the latest surviving example belongs to the Masjed-e Shīshe of Isfahan, dated 1690/1101. There is a thirteen-year gap between one of his pieces dated 1666/1077 and his first known architectural inscription—an interval that invites further consideration. One of his noteworthy works, in terms of geographical setting, is the inscription of the endowment deed (waqf-nāme) of Sheikh Ali Khān Zangane, carved on the rock face of Mount Bīsutūn in Kermanshah. In this work—just as in the inscription of the mausoleum of Shāh-Zeyd (1686/1097), the inscription of the Darvīsh vaulted porch of the Old Jāme‛ Mosque of Isfahan (1687/1098), and the inscriptions of the Masjed-e Sha‛yā-ye Nabī in Isfahan (1689/1100)—he signed his name as “Muḥsen al-Emāmī,” which is one of the signatures he most frequently used in his works.

Life and works of Ali-Naqī Emāmī

According to the statement of Muhammad-Ṣāleḥ Eṣfahānī in tadhkerat al-khaṭṭāṭīn, “Āqā Naqī is the son and student of Āqā Muḥsenā”²¹. He practiced calligraphy during the reign of Shah Sulṭān-Hussein Ṣafavī (1694–1723/1105–1135), and several of his works survive in historic monuments of Isfahan. Based on these extant inscriptions, all of his artistic activity took place in the city of Isfahan.
Among the buildings in which works by Ali-Naqī appear are the Old Jāme‛ Mosque, the Maryam-Baygum Madrasa, the Cahār-Bāgh Madrasa, the Emāmzāde Esmā‛īl*, the Masjed-e Sha‛ayā-ye Nabī, the Emāmzāde Aḥmad, the Darb-e Emām mausoleum, and the Masjed-e ‛Alī-Qulī-Āqā*. In the Emāmzāde Esmā‛īl complex, inscriptions by Muhammad-Reza and Muhammad-Muḥsen Emāmī are also present, as previously noted. The surviving evidence indicates that he was active in monumental inscription for at least sixteen years, from 1699 to 1715/1111 to 1127. Ali-Naqī Emāmī is regarded as the last calligrapher of the Emāmī family in the Safavid era. Among the distinguished calligraphers who were his contemporaries were Muhammad-Ṣāleḥ b. Abū-turāb Eṣfahānī in nasta‛līq and ‛Abdul-Raḥīm Jazāyerī in thuluth. In the inscriptions of the Cahār-Bāgh Madrasa in Isfahan— the last monumental foundation of the Safavid rulers—works of these three prominent artists appear side by side.

Most of Ali-Naqī’s inscriptions are written in thuluth, yet the existence of several nasta‛līq inscriptions in his hand allows him to be regarded as a nasta‛līq calligrapher as well.²² One notable feature of his signatures is that, in several works, he identifies himself as “Ebn Muhammad-Muḥsen,” placing his father’s name before his own. Ali-Naqī did not produce any known work during the lifetime of his father; and between the last work of Muhammad-Muḥsen in the Masjed-e Shīshe of Isfahan (1690/1101) and the first known work of Ali-Naqī in the mosque and mausoleum of Sha‛yā-ye Nabī (1699/1111), there is a ten-year interval. No information is available regarding the birth or death dates of Ali-Naqī Emāmī.

/Farhad Khosravi Bijaem/

Bibliography

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1. Eṣfahānī, p. 17; Irānī, p. 217; Qudsī, p. 51.[↩]
2. Irānī, pp. 218–219.[↩]
3. Godard, p. 245.[↩]
4. Ṣaḥrā-gard, 2013/1392, pp. 36, 158.[↩]
5. Mudarres Raḍavī, 1999/1378; Nicholas Ambrose and Charles Melville, like many other sources, have cited the year 1084 (p. 163). Nevertheless, in one instance, Khātūn-ābādī has listed the “Mashhad earthquake” under the events of the year 1083 (p. 532).[↩]
6. Irānī, p. 222.[↩]
7. Qudsī, p. 51.[↩]
8. Ṣaḥrā-gard, 2013/1392, p. 56.[↩]
9. Idem, 2016/1395, p. 97.[↩]
10. Hunarfar, p. 442.[↩]
11. Qudsī, pp. 128–132.[↩]
12. Godard, p. 245.[↩]
13. Hunarfar, pp. 347, 442, 450, 452, 501, 541, 551–553, 556, 586, 589, 611, 616, 619, 630; Qudsī, pp. 127–132; Godard, pp. 246–248; Sutūde, p. 106; Mudarresī Ṭabāṭabāʾī, p. 1251; Ja‛farī, p. 82; Ṣaḥrā-gard, 2013/1392, pp. 36, 164.[↩]
14. Eṣfahānī, p. 17.[↩]
15. Irānī, p. 227.[↩]
16. Bayānī, vol. 4, p. 1196.[↩]
17. Ibid.[↩]
18. Eṣfahānī, p. 17.[↩]
19. Bayānī, vol. 4, p. 1168.[↩]
20. See Idem, vol. 4, p. 1100.[↩]
21. Eṣfahānī, p. 17.[↩]
22. Bayānī, vol. 4, p. 491.[↩]