Occasional Papers Series

For more than six decades, the Freer Occasional Papers Series has provided a forum for peer-reviewed scholarly works on a wide range of topics in Asian, ancient Near Eastern, Islamic, and American art. The format of the Occasional Papers varies according to subject and ranges from monographs, conference proceedings, and multi-author treatments of a theme or material, to studies in conservation and scientific research.
The original print editions of volumes published before 2008 are now available as PDFs. We are revitalizing many of these seminal studies by adding images and including other supplementary resources. These new special editions are made accessible as they are finalized.
NEW DIGITAL EDITION
Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad, Son of Mir-Munshi (circa A.H. 1015/A.D. 1606)
In 1959 Vladimir Minorsky, a renowned scholar of the history and languages of Iran, published his English translation of the late sixteenth-century Gulistan-i Hunar (Rose Garden of Art) by Qadi Ahmad. Minorsky’s additional notes supplement the original text, which consisted of biographical entries on artists arranged through the pedagogical lines of masters and pupils up to 1600. The volume not only shed light on calligraphic practices in pre-modern Iran, but it also gave impetus to the study of Persian manuscripts and the arts of the book. It further prompted new directions of research into the topic. Almost sixty years later, the importance of the publication cannot be overestimated, and it remains a critical reference to this day.
This interactive digital edition of Calligraphers and Painters features an introduction by Simon Rettig, F│S assistant curator of Islamic art, an updated bibliography, and links to other resources. More than forty masterpieces from the collections of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery illustrate the text. With this new presentation, we invite you to meet the luminaries described in Qadi Ahmad’s treatise and discover some of the celebrated works they created.
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Ordering Volumes
The Freer Occasional Papers Digital Repository

A.G. Wenley
vol. 1, no. 1, 1947

Burns A. Stubbs
vol. 1, no. 2, 1948

Richard Ettinghausen
vol. 1, no. 3, 1950

Burns A. Stubbs
vol. 1, no. 4, 1950

Georg Steindorff
vol. 1, no. 5, 1951

John Alexander Pope
vol. 2, no. 1, 1952

Rutherford J. Gettens and Bertha M. Usilton
vol. 2, no. 2, 1955

Wen Fong
vol. 3, no. 1, 1958

Translated by Vladimir Minorsky
vol. 3, no. 2, 1959

Richard Edwards
vol. 3, no. 3, 1967

Rutherford J. Gettens, Roy S. Clarke, and W. T. Chase
vol. 4, no. 1, 1971

Ebba Koch
vol. 1, 1998

Gauvin Alexander Bailey
vol. 2, 1998

Stanley K. Abe
vol. 3, 2002

Elisabeth West FitzHugh, John Winter, and Marco Leona
New series, vol. 1, 2003

Lee Glazer, Margaret F. MacDonald, Linda Merrill, and Nigel Thorp, eds.
New series, vol. 2, 2008


Tom Vick
New Series, vol. 4, 2015