Mirza Ali (; ) was a painter of

Persian miniatures A Persian miniature (Persian: نگارگری ایرانی ''negârgari Irâni'') is a small Persian painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a ''muraqqa''. The ...

in the 16th and 17th centuries. He was the son of the prominent painter

Sultan Mohammed Sultan Mohammad () was an Iranian painter at the Safavid court in Tabriz under Shah Ismail I () and Shah Tahmasp I (). He served as the director of Shah Ismail's artists’ workshop and as the first project director of the ''Shahnameh'' of Shah ...

(). Born in

Tabriz Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...

, he was raised at the city's

scriptorium A scriptorium () was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and illuminating of manuscripts by scribes. The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for scribes. Often they ...

, which belonged to the

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

shah Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous Per ...

(king)

Tahmasp I Tahmasp I ( or ; 22 February 1514 – 14 May 1576) was the second shah of Safavid Iran from 1524 until his death in 1576. He was the eldest son of Shah Ismail I and his principal consort, Tajlu Khanum. Tahmasp ascended the throne after the ...

(). According to the contemporary Safavid historian

Budaq Monshi Qazvini Budaq Monshi Qazvini (), was a bureaucrat and historian in 16th-century Safavid Iran, who composed the universal history , which focuses on a significant portion of the Persianate world. Born in 1510/11, Budaq came from a distinguished family ba ...

, Mirza Ali "left for India after his father's death and prospered there".

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

art specialist Barbara Brend also suggests that Mirza Ali traveled to India in order to work in the

court, even though she does not quote the source for this claim. Martin Bernard Dickson and

Stuart Cary Welch Stuart Cary Welch Jr. (2 April 1928 – 13 August 2008) was an American scholar and curator of Indian and Islamic art. Life and career Welch was born to a prominent family in Buffalo, New York. His maternal grandfather, Norman Edward Mack, was ...

suggest that Mirza Ali's career continued in Iran until around 1575, while Abolala Soudavar suggests that Mirza Ali accompanied

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

to India and returned to Iran after the latters death in 1556. Brend considers Mirza Ali and

Abd al-Samad 'Abd al-Ṣamad or Khwaja 'Abd-us-Ṣamad was a 16th century painter of Persian miniatures who moved to India and became one of the founding masters of the Mughal miniature tradition, and later the holder of a number of senior administrative ro ...

to have been the same person, due to their stylistic similarities.

References

Sources

* {{EI3, last=Canby, first=Sheila R., authorlink=Sheila R. Canby, year=2020, title=Mīrzā ʿAlī, url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EI3O/COM-36475.xml Iranian miniature painters 16th-century Iranian painters Artists from Tabriz