The Meeting of the Theologians

Artist 'Abd Allah Musawwir (Persian, active mid-16th century)

Artist Uzbek Shaybanid School (1500–1598)

Date1540-1550

MediumOpaque watercolor and gold on paper

DimensionsImage: 11 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches (28.88 x 19.05 cm)
Sheet: 13 x 9 inches (33.02 x 22.86 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number43-5

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Persian Art and its Reaction on the Modern World, Brooklyn Museum, March 16-May 24, 1931, hors cat.

Exhibition of Persian Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, April 7-April 30, 1936, no cat.

Exhibition of Islamic Art, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, February 24-March 22, 1937, no. 60.

Persian Miniatures, Pottery, and Sculpture, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, October 10-November 22, 1937, no cat.

Exhibition of Persian Art, The Iranian Institute, New York, April 15-May 15, 1940, gallery 9, case 13, no. B as Miniature: A beggar denied alms at the gate of a mosque.

Islamic Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 3, 1944-February 4, 1945, hors cat.

Islamic Painting from American Collections, The School of Art and The Department of Religion, Syracuse University, April 6-26, 1967, no. 72 as Beggar Denied Alms a the Gate of a Mosque.

Classical Style in Islamic Painting: Examples from American Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, November 6, 1968-January 4, 1969, no. 49 as Scene in a Mosque.

Genre, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 5–May 15, 1983, no. 52.

Echoes: Islamic Art and Contemporary Artists, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, August 31, 2013-April 27, 2014, no cat.

Sages and Heroes: Storytelling in Asian Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 12, 2025–November 30, 2025, no cat.

Gallery Label

Persian paintings, like this miniature, often use architectural elements to help frame a scene from a story. The inscriptions of this illustration connect the scene to Gulistan, the collection of poems and stories by Persian poet Saadi of Shiraz in the 1200s. In this work, a young grammarian sits and speaks with an old man in the courtyard of an ornately decorated mosque. The young grammarian challenges the elderly man to read the work of Sa dī. The elderly man, later revealed to be Sa dī, responds with two poetic couplets written at the top right and left of the illustration. Right: “Ever since your nature had a passion for grammar The picture of reason is erased from our hearts” Left: “Lovers’ hearts are prey in your net, We are occupied with you, but you are occupied with Amr and Zayd.” Amr and Zayd are names used to explain the rules of grammar. (Translation by Wheeler McIntosh Thackston)

Provenance

With Kirkor Minassian, by February 1937 [1];

Purchased from Minassian by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1943.

NOTES:

[1] Lent by Kirkor Minassian to Exhibition of Islamic Art, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, February 24-March 22, 1937, no. 60.

Published References

Walter Heil and Aga-Oglu Mehmet, Exhibition of Islamic Art, exh. cat. (San Francisco: M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, 1937), 31.

Phyllis Ackerman, Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, exh. cat. (New York: The Iranian Institute, 1940), 256-57, (repro.).

Arthur Upham Pope, Masterpieces of Persian Art (New York: The Dryden Press, 1945), as Beggar Denied Alms, 149, 171, pl. 129, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 176, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 250-51, (repro.).

Ernst J. Grube, Islamic Painting from American Collections, exh. cat. (Syracuse, The School of Art, Syracuse University, 1967), 30.

Ernst J. Grube, The Classical Style in Islamic Painting: The Early School of Herat and its Impact on Islamic Painting of the Later 15^th, the 16^th and 17^th Centuries (Germany: Edizioni Oriens, 1968), pl. 49, 193, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 163-64, (repro.).

Denise Lardner Carmody and John Tully Carmody, Ways to the Center: An Introduction to World Religions, 3^rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1980), 380, (repro.).

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 220-21, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 403, (repro.).

Thomas Buser, Experience Art Around Us (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1995), 156-57, fig. 6-12, (repro.).

Rosalind Ragans, Art Talk, 3^rd ed. (New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000), 216, (repro.).

Thomas Buser, Experience Art Around Us, 2^nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006), 114, fig. 5-11, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 22, 30, fig. 21, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.