Muhammad Tahir Naqqash Kashani: The Multi-Skilled Poet of the Safavid Era

One of the unknown artists of Kashan during the Safavid era was Mohammad Tahir Naqqash Kashani. Historical sources have called him a poet who trained some students, and his main profession has been naqshbandī (i.e. painter of textile motifs). Although some of his verses have been narrated in several texts, they have not been collected and edited. In primary sources and modern studies, five takhallus (i.e. pen name) have been mentioned for him, but in the present paper the authenticity of one of them is only confirmed. Since he was a painter, some scholars have attributed to him some mural paintings, but the accuracy of this claim has not been confirmed. Moreover, an inscription in thulth script on cuerda secatiles with his signature shows that he has also been involved in calligraphy. Since no research has been done on this artist so far, various texts have attributed different professions to him: poet, nagshband, calligrapher, painter, potter, illuminator, and paper maker. However, some evidence shows that he has only had the first four professions. Therefore, the most important question in this article is to identify Tahir’s works based on his signed works and, also, to study and analyze their characteristics. In this article, five ghazals written by the artist himself, a list of his poems as well as some of his art works are published for the first time.