Sultan Ali Qa'eni
d. 1508 · Qa'en
Sultan Ali Qa'eni was a nastaliq calligrapher and poet of the late 15th century, a pupil of Azhar Tabrizi and a close contemporary of Sultan Ali Mashhadi. He began as a favoured scribe at the Tabriz court of the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Sultan Ya'qub (r. 884-896 AH) and signed his work 'Ya'qubi'; under Ya'qub's grandson Rustam he signed 'Rustami'. He then travelled from Tabriz to the Hijaz and on to Khurasan, where he joined the Herat court of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, taught the sultan's sons and signed 'Sultani'. In Herat he moved in the circle of Ali-Shir Nava'i and became devoted to the poet Jami; for a time he copied nothing but Jami's works and set a very high price on anything else. His style mixes his teacher's manner with that of Sultan Ali Mashhadi, and he was best in the small book hand. Though known for nastaliq, pieces of his naskh and riqa also survive. He died in 914 AH (1508-09).
Achievements
- Was a favoured scribe at the Tabriz court of the Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Ya'qub and signed as 'Ya'qubi'; under Rustam he signed as 'Rustami'.
- At Herat he taught the sons of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, signed as 'Sultani', and was a companion of Ali-Shir Nava'i.
- Devoted to Jami, he copied only Jami's works for a time and asked very high fees for anything else.
- Copied Mir Haydar's Makhzan al-asrar for Sultan Ya'qub, finished 24 August 1478, on dyed and gold-decorated Chinese paper (New York Public Library).
- Fifty-one pieces in albums of the Istanbul Awqaf library and thirteen in the Bahram Mirza Album are listed by Mehdi Bayani.
Taught by: Mawlana Azhar Tabrizi
His work
1478 · New York Public Library, Spencer Collection (Persian MS 41)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Only one freely licensed work was found; his other manuscripts and album pieces are in Istanbul and Tehran libraries without open photographs.
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 Nastaliq piece the store makes: Nastaliq collection.
Sources
- Persian Wikipedia (after Bayani, Ahval va asar-i khushnivisan pp. 236-241): career, signatures, Jami, works, death 914 fa.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: same facts ar.wikipedia.org
- Commons: Makhzan al-asrar, NYPL Spencer Persian MS 41, finished 25 Jumada I 883 / 24 Aug 1478 commons.wikimedia.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).