This calligraphic panel executed in black and red on a white ground decorated in gold contains a number of prayers (du'as) directed to God, the Prophet Muhammad, and his son-in-law 'Ali. The letters of the larger words are executed in nasta'liq script and filled with various decorative motifs, animals, and human figures. The human figures standing side-by-side in the central horizontal letter represent the eleven Shi'i imams and (a kneeling) Imam ‘Ali, holding his double-edged sword <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhu_al-Fiqar" class="extiw" title="en:Dhu al-Fiqar">Dhu al-Fiqar</a>.
All around the larger letters composed in the nasta'liq style and filled with motifs appear smaller Shi'i prayers purposefully executed in a number of different scripts. These include thuluth, naskh, nasta'liq, shikastah, tawqi', and Kufi. One inscription is even written in reverse, as if executed with the help of a mirror. The sheer variety of these scripts, along with the <b>larger central gulzar composition</b>, was intended to showcase Husayn Zarrin Qalam's mastery of all the major calligraphic scripts.
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Husayn Zarrin Qalam</div>
1212 H / 1797-8 AD
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.138">Library of Congress</a>