Abbasi
Riza-i-Abbasi (active 1610-35) was an accomplished painter at the court of Shah Abbas Safavi of Iran. Riza's father, Maulana Ali Asghar Kashani, was an expert portrait painter on the staff of the imperial library, where the disciples of the miniaturist Bihzad were among his colleagues. Entering the court of Shah Abbas in 1600, he gained a lofty reputation as a draftsman within a decade. His expressive brushwork gives his portraits, such as Shah Abbas and the Indian Ambassador Khan Alam (1633; State Library, St. Petersburg, an abstract appearance that resembles one large calligraphic stroke.