Qasim Ali

Qasim ibn Ali. Years of birth and death unknown. Miniaturist; student of Behzad; member of the Herat school.

Qasim worked in the late 15th and early 16th century in the court Ketab-khaneh (workshop for making manuscript books and book depository) of Sultan Husayn Baykara. The works of Qasim Ali—for example, the miniatures executed during the 1520’s for the 1433 manuscript of Ahsan al-qibar by Mohammad al-Hoseyn al-Varamini, now in the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library, Leningrad—are marked by a genre treatment of the subject matter, an attempt at individual characterization of the figures, an abundance of color, and a virtuoso drawing technique.