Aḥmad Mūsā

Two Riders in a Wintry Landscape with Bears, polychrome painting, attr. Ahmad Musa by an inscription, Tabriz or Baghdad, mid-14th century. Folio, TSMK, H. 2153, fol. 28r Ahmad Musa was a painter of the 14th century in Ilkhanid Iran. He is said to have invented naturalistic Persianate painting, at the time the last Mongol Ilkhanid ruler, Abu Sa'id (r. 1317–35) was ruling. He may still have been active under the Jalayirid Sultanate of Shaykh Uways Jalayir, ca. 1370–74.

Ahmad Musa reportedly accomplished this artistic feat by “lifting the veil from the face of depiction.” Two Riders in a Wintry Landscape with Bears, polychrome painting, attr. Ahmad Musa by an inscription, Tabriz or Baghdad, mid-14th century. Folio, TSMK, H. 2153, fol. 28r (detail)

Isfandiyar’s Haft Khvān (Seven Labors), Jalayirid Shāhnāma, attr. Ahmad Musa by an inscription, Tabriz or Baghdad, ca. 1370–74. Folio, TSMK, H. 2153, fol. 16v Some paintings attributed to Ahmad Musa are mounted in the Shah Tahmasp Album at the Istanbul University Library (F. 1422). The Miʿrājnāma paintings by Ahmad Musa can be seen in the Bahram Mirza Album (H. 2154).