Ali Reza Abbasi (Ali Reza Tabrizi)
Tabriz
Ali Reza Abbasi was born and trained in Tabriz; his birth year is not known. He learned thuluth and naskh from Ala al-Din Muhammad Tabrizi and seems to have taught himself nastaliq in the manner of Mir Ali Heravi. The Ottoman invasion of Tabriz brought him to Qazvin in 1585, where he wrote inscriptions and album pages. After about two years with the general Farhad Khan, he entered the service of Shah Abbas I on 1 July 1593, began to sign as 'al-Abbasi', and later became head of the royal library. He is remembered above all for the thuluth inscriptions he designed for the shah's buildings: the portals of the Shaykh Lutfallah Mosque (1603-04) and the Shah Mosque (1617) in Isfahan, and work at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. Later biographers blamed him for Mir Emad's murder; Encyclopaedia Iranica finds no evidence for this. He is said to have been alive in 1628-29.
Achievements
- Designed the thuluth portal inscription of the Shaykh Lutfallah Mosque, Isfahan, 1012/1603-04.
- Designed the portal inscription of the Shah Mosque, Isfahan, 1025/1617.
- Designed gold plaques in nastaliq for the tomb of Imam Reza in Mashhad, 1011/1602-03.
- Joined Shah Abbas I on 1 Shawwal 1001 / 1 July 1593 and later headed the royal library.
- Wrote inscriptions at the tomb of Khwaja Rabi' in Mashhad (1024/1615-16 and 1026/1617-18).
Taught by: Ala al-Din Tabrizi, Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi
Taught: Abd al-Baqi Tabrizi, Muhammad Reza Emami, Muhammad Saleh Esfahani
His work
Isfahan, 1598 · Art and History Collection
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
1599–1600 · Astan Quds Razavi Library, Mashhad
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
about 1600 · Astan Quds Razavi, Mashhad
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
about 1600 · Museum of Decorative Arts, Isfahan
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
Write in this tradition now →Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi) — or every Thuluth piece the store makes: Thuluth collection.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, P. P. Soucek, "ʿALĪ-REŻĀ ʿABBĀSĪ" (archived copy): training, career, inscriptions, dates web.archive.org
- Reed College anthology: teachers, entry to court, children, last dated piece reed.edu
- en.wikipedia: Shahnavaz title, scripts en.wikipedia.org
- fa.wikipedia: inscriptions in Isfahan and Mashhad, students, Qur'an at Astan Quds fa.wikipedia.org
- Wikidata wikidata.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).