Aḥmad Mūsā

Aḥmad Mūsā, (flourished 14th century, Tabrīz, Azerbaijan), painter active at the court of the Il Khans at Tabrīz. He is said to have learned painting from his father and to have “drawn the veil from the face of painting and invented the art of the Persian miniature.” He was active under Abū Saʿīd (ruled 1316–35), the last of the Mongol sultans in fact as well as name. He illustrated a Kalila wa Dimna (book of animal fables) and a book of the Miʿrāj (the miraculous journey of the Prophet Muhammad), which are probably now preserved in part in the “Conqueror’s Albums” of the imperial Ottoman library at the Topkapı Palace at Istanbul. Aḥmad Mūsā’s most famous pupil was Shams al-Dīn, who painted at the court of the Jalāyir sultans of Baghdad in the latter part of the 14th century.