ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED MAŠHADĪ, calligrapher active during the first half of the 10th/16th century. He is said to have been a disciple of Solṭān-ʿAlī Mašhadī; however, the only known manuscripts by him appear to have been copied in Turkey. Copies of the Persian Dīvān of Sultan Salīm I written by him are preserved in Istanbul (Topkapi Saray Library, Revan 737 and 738; Plate VII) and Tehran (the former Imperial Library). Another manuscript now in Tehran bears the notation that it was made on the order of Sultan Solaymān (Bayānī, Ḵošnevīsān II, p. 418).
The style of nastaʿlīq favored by ʿAbd-al-Vāḥed is closely connected with that used by Solṭān-ʿAlī Mašhadī and other calligraphers active in Iran during the 9th/15th century, a fact that suggests that he was indeed trained in Iran. From surviving manuscripts it can be deduced that ʿAbd-al-Vāḥed was attached to the Ottoman court during the reigns of Salīm I and Solaymān. However, no further details of his life appear to have been recorded. In some sources he has been confused with an earlier ʿAbd-al-Vāḥed (d. 838/14340, a scholar and astronomer who resided in Kütahya.
Plate VII. Calligraphy of ʿAbd-al-Vāḥed Mašhadī (Topkapi Saray Library, Hazine 299, fol. 20b.)
Bibliography:
See also Karatay, Kataloğ, p. 196, no. 299; p. 142, nos. 760-61; pp. 262-63.
(F. Cağman and P. P. Soucek)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 15, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, p. 168
Multiple Authors, “Abd-Al-Vahed Mashadi,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, p. 168; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-vahed-mashadi-16th-century-calligrapher (accessed on 17 January 2014).
