A drawing of two wolves, style of Muhammad Siyah Qalam, probably Tabriz late 15th century

Ex-collection Dr. Ebadollah Bahari, London

inscriptions

With an inscription giving the name ‘Sultan Ahmed khan ibn Sultan …’ and the date 1020 AH/1611-12 AD:

'… He who does so is ignorant and unenlightened

Sultan Ahmed Khan son of Sultan

… May God forgive his sins

… (Wednes/Thurs)day the Twenty

-fifth … of the Prophet, may peace and blessings of God be upon him

And his family.'

Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I (r.1603-17) was a bibliophile and avid collector of works on paper. He commissioned two imperial albums (now in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library, B.408 and H.2161) which were produced under the supervision of the album maker Kalender (See Emine Fetvaci’s articles, 'The Album of Ahmed I', Ars Orientalis, Vol.42, 2012, pp.127-138 and 'The Gaze in the Album of Ahmed I', Muqarnas, Vol.32, 2015, pp.135-154).

Ahmed was also interested in the imperial albums containing Timurid, Aqqoyunlu and Safavid drawings and calligraphies (the so-called ‘Topkapi albums’ or ‘saray albums’) collected in the Topkapi Palace. He studied these albums regularly and sometimes wrote short attributions, notes and poems on their margins. Two of the Topkapi albums include Ahmed’s handwriting and signature: the Aqqoyunlu Yaqub Beg’s first album (H.2153, f.87b) and the album of Ahmed I himself (B.408, f.5b). Many of Ahmed’s attributions are to Muhammad Siyah Qalam (for example on Album H.2153, f.6b.), catalogued by Michael Rogers as “probably in the hand of the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I” (Rogers et al 1986, p.118, pl.74). This folio includes a very similar handwritten note to that on the present painting.

Both Yaqub Beg albums in the Topkapi Library, Istanbul (H.2153 and H.2160) include fifteenth-century drawings of wolves comparable to those in the present drawing (H.2153, f.171a and H.2160 f.95a, published in ibid. p.155, pl.104-6). A related drawing of birds and beasts in a flowery landscape, attributed to Muhammad Siyah Qalam, is in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (inv. no.43-6/2).