Abu'l-Hasan MustawfiGhaffari

(d c. 1797-8). As court secretary (mustawfi) to Karim Khan Zand, Abu'l-Hasan Mustawfi began to compose the Gulshan-i Murad ('Garden of desire'), one of the most important historical sources for the period, which was finished by his son Muhammad Baqir, the painter, in 1796. Neither of the two surviving manuscripts (Tehran, Malek Lib., MS. 4333, and London, BL, Or. MS. 3592) is illustrated, but many of Abu'l-Hasan Mustawfi's watercolours and drawings, including portraits of his family and historical figures, have been preserved by his family. Several, including one dated 1782, show his father Mu`izz al-Din Muhammad seated and smoking a pipe. A miniature dated August 1794 depicts his great-grandfather Qazi `Abd al-Muttalib riding a mule en route to the coronation of Nadir Shah Afshar (reg 1736-47). A portrait dated 1793-4 (see Diba, fig. 6) depicts the Safavid ruler Safi I (reg 1629-42), and another painting done the following year is a posthumous portrait of Karim Khan and his groom in the royal square. The artist's latest work, dated 1797-8, is a portrait of his grandfather Qazi Ahmad seated in a garden with a boy sleeping in the background. Abu'l-Hasan Mustawfi signed his works al-mustawfi, but other unsigned paintings, such as a watercolour (Geneva, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan priv. col.) of Shah `Abbas II receiving the Mughal ambassador, can also be attributed to the artist. His impressive compositions continue the tradition of late Safavid court painting, but he was a perspicacious observer of contemporary events, and his eye for detail distinguishes his style from the decorative and charming but sometimes vapid work of his contemporaries.

Part of the Ghaffari family

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