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Ahmad Musa [Ahmad Musa]
( fl c. 1330–50). Persian illustrator. In the preface to an album he compiled for the Safavid prince Bahram Mirza in 1544 (Istanbul, Topkapi Pal. Lib., H. 2154), the Safavid librarian DUST MUHAMMAD wrote that during the reign of the Ilkhanid Abu Sa`id (reg 1317–35) the master Ahmad Musa ‘lifted the veil from the face of depiction, and the [style of] depiction that is now current was invented by him’. Dust Muhammad credited Ahmad Musa with illustrating an Abusa`idnama (‘Book of Abu Sa`id’), a Kalila and Dimna, a Mi`rajnama (‘Book of the ascension’) and a Tarikh-i Chingizi (‘History of Genghis Khan’); ten illustrations from a 14th-century Mi`rajnama, four of them attributed to Ahmad Musa, are included in Dust Muhammad’s album. He presented Ahmad Musa as a major link in the development of Persian book painting in the 14th century (see ISLAMIC ART, §III, 4(v)(b) and (c)): having learnt the art from his father, Ahmad Musa in turn trained Amir Dawlatyar and Shams al-Din, who worked under the Jalayirid sultan Uways I (reg 1356–74). Attempts have been made to connect Ahmad Musa with paintings in the great Mongol copy (ex-Demotte priv. col., dispersed) of the Shahnama (‘Book of kings’), and with paintings from a fragmentary manuscript of Kalila and Dimna included in an album (Istanbul, U. Lib., F. 1422) prepared for the Safavid shah Tahmasp.
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