Abu’lFazl’s negotiation of European painting in the Mughal context, Qadi
Ahmad’s writing reflected a similar naturalization of painting among the
arts.
Like Mustafa‘Ali, Qadi Ahmad quickly retreats from his celebration of
painting, citing writing through the legacy of‘Ali ibn Abi Talib as a source
of beauty through virtue.
The aim of Murtada‘Ali in writing
Was (to reproduce) not merely speech, letters and dots,
But fundamentals, purity and virtue
For this reason, he deigned to point to good writing.^24
Calligraphy thus produces beauty in the soul of its practitioner. The written
form reflects this internal beauty. Qadi Ahmad cites Plato as having said,
“Writing is the geometry of the soul, and it manifests itself by means of the
organs of the body.”^25 Echoing the Brethren of Purity’s Platonic account of
writing and the proportions of nature and the body through geometry,
Qadi Ahmad suggests that not only the hand, but any limb might be
adapted to the practice of writing. The quality of writing is based on virtue
that emerges through the cleansing of the soul, which may be created
through the discipline of training through repetition, but also may emerge
from the pure soul enabled to write with a foot or the mouth.
Likewise, he describes art as functioning through the insight of both
artist and viewer:
Let it be clear that the wonderful phantasy and strange native force of the artists are
known in all countries and witnessed by men possessed of sight. The force of
imagination and refinement of nature owned by this race are not found in any
other men of art. The image which the portrait-painter reveals on the tablets of the
mind cannot be reflected in everybody’s mirror of beauty.^26
The image functions through internalization by people“possessed of
sight”: able to reflect the artist’s imagination in their own. The beauty is
not an external quality of the image, but an internal quality of virtue that
enables sight.
Two subsequent stories illustrate this idea. In thefirst, an impoverished
artist from Khorasan journeys to Rum with his friend, a goldsmith. On the
way, they come to a temple (butkhana, lit. house of idols), where they stay
for several years. Winning the confidence of the monks, they acquire the
keys to the treasury, break the idols, and abscond with a vast amount of
(^24) Minorksy, 1959 : 51. (^25) Minorksy, 1959 : 52. (^26) Minorksy, 1959 : 175.
Qadi Ahmad and Painting as Calligraphy 167