( fl 1750s-1760s). Persian painter. He is known for decorations in the margins of manuscripts, copies of European prints and 17th-century paintings, and wash drawings. His subjects range from floral sprays to nudes, such as the watercolour of a sleeping nymph (1765; Dublin, Chester Beatty Lib., cat. no. 282.VI). He contributed paintings and marginal decorations to a sumptuous album (1758-9; St Petersburg, Hermitage), probably compiled for the Afsharid court historian Mirza Mahdi Khan Astarabadi. Muhammad Baqir's punning signature there suggests that he was a pupil of `ALI ASHRAF. Muhammad Baqir signed one of the finest marginal paintings in a smaller but similar album (1764; dispersed; sold H?tel Drouot, Paris, 23 June 1982) and may have been responsible for all of them, which include rose sprays and copies of Susannah and the Elders. Muhammad Baqir is sometimes said to have continued to work under the Qajar ruler Fath `Ali Shah (reg 1797-1834), for the impressive varnished covers that the ruler ordered to replace the original binding on the famous copy (London, BL, Or. MS. 2265) of Nizami's Khamsa ('Five poems') made for the Safavid shah Tahmasp I in 1539-43 are signed by Muhammad Baqir and SAYYID MIRZA. As the date of the binding (the late 1820s) would extend Muhammad Baqir's career beyond reasonable limits, it is more likely that the painter of the varnished covers should be identified with the enameller BAQIR.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
