# Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325–1389) (verso)

- By: Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi (Persian, active mid- to late 1500s)
- Date: 1575–76
- Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification: Calligraphy
- Dimensions: Page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.)
- Culture: Persian, Uzbekistan, Bukhara
- Credit line: Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.347.b)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.347.b/2013.347.b_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This fine calligraphic work is signed and dated by a calligrapher who was highly regarded in both Safavid Iran and Mughal India. Mughal albums typically had a painted portrait or figural scene on one side, and a work of calligraphy on the other. The British civil servant Sir Charles Forbes made his album following that format.

The verses are a lament over a lack of wine, beginning: For some days now the Daughter of the Vine has been lost to us, Gone away to tend to her own affairs. Be alert and prepared as a search party. Her dress is of rubies, and she wears a tiara of delicate glass.