Abd al-Karim Khwarazmi
d. 1491
Abd al-Karim Khwarazmi was a son of Abd al-Rahman Khwarazmi, counted among the first great masters of nastaliq, and a brother of the calligrapher and poet Abd al-Rahim Anisi. TDV says little is known of his life: his birth and death dates are not recorded, though he is thought to have been born in Shiraz and to have spent most of his life there; Persian Wikipedia notes that he was still alive in 897 AH (1491). He learned from his father and kept his manner, with tall vertical letters and broad round ones, so close to his brother's that unsigned pieces by the two are hard to tell apart. Both brothers worked for the Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Ya'qub in Tabriz and used the signature 'Ya'qubi'. Late in life a troubled mind led him to sign with odd titles such as 'Padishah', which earned him the name Abd al-Karim Padishah. He was skilled in other scripts too. His Halnama and Rushana'inama of 883 AH (1478) is in Tehran, and the Metropolitan Museum attributes to him a Divan of Jami of about 1480.
Achievements
- Continued the nastaliq style of his father Abd al-Rahman Khwarazmi, one of its first great masters, together with his brother Abd al-Rahim Anisi.
- Worked at the Tabriz court of the Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Ya'qub and sometimes signed 'Ya'qubi'.
- His Halnama of Arifi and Rushana'inama, dated 883 AH (1478), is in the Majlis Library in Tehran.
- The Metropolitan Museum credits him as calligrapher of a Divan of Jami of about 1480.
- Examples of his hand are in albums in the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul University Library, Tehran and St Petersburg.
Taught by: ʿAbd al-Rahman Khwarazmi
His work
c. 1480 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (13.228.4)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC0
c. 1480 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (13.228.4)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC0
about 1480 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (13.228.4, f. 328r)
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain
about 1480 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (13.228.4, f. 3r)
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain
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Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ali Alparslan): family, Shiraz, Ya'qubi signature, style, odd signatures, dated work 883/1478, collections islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- Persian Wikipedia (after Bayani, Fazaeli): alive in 897 AH, works fa.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: same facts ar.wikipedia.org
- Metropolitan Museum 13.228.4: Divan of Jami, ca. 1480, calligrapher Abd al-Karim al-Khwarazmi metmuseum.org
Written by the MASHQ studio · last updated 2026-10-05. Further reading, the standard references in English: Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) · Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York University Press, 1984) · Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy (Thames and Hudson, 1978).