{
"data": {
"id": 170879,
"accession_number": "2013.347.b",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325\u20131389) (verso), 1575\u201376. Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi (Persian, active mid- to late 1500s). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.347.b",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325\u20131389) (verso)",
"creation_date": "1575\u201376",
"creation_date_earliest": 1575,
"creation_date_latest": 1576,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Persian, Uzbekistan, Bukhara"
],
"technique": "Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Mughal",
"type": "Calligraphy",
"measurements": "Page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"page": {
"height": 0.28,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.238,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "In center, Persian exercises including on the second line down the \u201cabjad\u201d letters of numeration followed by calligrapher\u2019s signature, in nasta\u2018liq script:\nDone by the hand of the sinful slave Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi, may God forgive his sins, in the year 982",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Persian verses above from a ghazal of Hafiz (Persian, 1325\u20131389), in nasta\u2018liq script:\nFor some days now the Daughter of the Vine has been lost to us,/\nGone away to tend to her own affairs. Be alert and prepared (as a search party)./\nHer dress is of rubies and she wears a tiara of delicate glass./\nShe carries off wisdom and knowledge. Till you feel safe and secure from her, remain alert!/\nWhoever will bring her bitter presence to me, I will give him sweet confectionaries (halwa) in exchange,/\nAnd should she be hiding in disguise in the underworld, go down (and seek her out)/\nThe daughter of the dark-colored (vine) is quick-tempered, petulant, rose-colored and drunk./\nShould you find her, take her towards Hafiz\u2019s house.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Persian verses below, continued from above, in nasta\u2018liq script:\nI saw her last night, sauntering and tipsy./\nA cup in hand, she was heading towards a gathering of the drunk/\nI was so vexed that my poetic powers/\nBecame distraught and fled away from me/\nShe was harboring thoughts of Khwarazm and the shores of the Oxus/\nWith a thousand complaints she was leaving the Kingdom of Solomon/\nGone would be the person who knew the very soul of poetry as no one else./\nI was witnessing this and my soul was seeping out of my body/\nI protested and much lamented but to no avail/\nFor this was a matter for the Sultan\u2019s compassion to tend.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 203111,
"title": "Art and Stories from Mughal India",
"description": "Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2016-07-31T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet [1773\u20131849], Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "before 1811\u20131849",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901\u20131984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?\u20131962",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby\u2019s, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 10 December 1962, lot 25, sold to Ralph Benkaim)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "December 10, 1962",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Ralph Benkaim [1914\u20132001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1962\u20132013",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2013\u2013",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The work was part of an album of paintings collected in India before 1811 by a Scottish politician who worked for the British East India Company.",
"description": "This fine calligraphic work is signed and dated by a calligrapher who was highly regarded in both Safavid Iran and Mughal India. Mughal albums typically had a painted portrait or figural scene on one side, and a work of calligraphy on the other. The British civil servant Sir Charles Forbes made his album following that format.
The verses are a lament over a lack of wine, beginning:
For some days now the Daughter of the Vine has been lost to us,
Gone away to tend to her own affairs.
Be alert and prepared as a search party.
Her dress is of rubies, and she wears a tiara of delicate glass.",
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]
},
"citations": [],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.347.b",
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"creditline": "Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection",
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{
"id": 64825,
"description": "Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi (Persian, active mid- to late 1500s)",
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"date_text": "1575\u201376",
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"cover_accession_number": "2013.347",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Calligraphy",
"Calligraphic exercises and two ghazals of Hafiz (Persian, 1325\u20131389)"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-06-10 19:49:36.560000"
}
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