Qāsim ibn ‛Alī  (1475–c. 1526)

• Was an Iranian illustrator.

• He was one of the most renowned painters at the court of the Timurid sultan Husayn Bayqara and his associate ‛Alishir Nava’i.

• The chronicler Mīrzā Muhammad Haydar Dughlāt (1500–51) described him as a portrait painter and pupil of Bihzad and said that Qasim ‛Ali’s works came close to Bihzad’s but were rougher.

• The historian Khwāndamīr (d 1535–6) noted that Qasim ‛Ali worked in the library of ‛Alishir Nava’i, the poet, bibliophile and major patron.

• By the 1520s, having made the pilgrimage to Mecca and moved to Sistan, he apparently had ceased painting.

• His style is difficult to define because many works are falsely ascribed to him. 

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