Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti
Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti was a 13th-century Iraqi-Arab painter and calligrapher, noted for being the scribe and illustrator of al-Hariri's Maqamat dated 1237 CE.
A 13th-century book illustration produced in Baghdad by al-Wasiti showing a slave-market in the town of Zabid in Yemen
Left frontispiece (1v): ruler in Turkic dress (long braids, Sharbush fur hat, boots, fitting coat), in the Maqamat of al-Hariri, 1237 CE, possibly Baghdad.
Right frontispiece (2r): possible depiction of the author al-Hariri himself, in the Maqamat of al-Hariri, 1237 CE, possibly Baghdad.
Maqama 10: Ayyubid Governor of Rahba, with Abū Zayd and his son.
Al-Hariri of Basra was a poet belonging to the Beni Harram tribe of Bedouin Arabs, who lived and died in the city of Basra, modern Iraq. He was a scholar of the Arabic language and a dignitary of the Seljuk Empire, which ruled Iraq during his lifetime, from 1055 to 1135.
Possible depiction of al-Hariri, in the Maqamat of al-Hariri, 1237 CE edition, probably Baghdad.
Ms Cairo Adab 105, folio 5a. Title and autograph ijaza written by al-Hariri himself, for the copyist, in 1110-11.
"Discussion Near a Village", a miniature illustrating the 43rd maqāmah of a 1237 edition of al-Hariri's Maqamat al-Hariri, painted by Yaḥyā ibn Maḥmūd al-Wāsiṭī. Painting in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. MS Arabe 5847 fol. 138v.
Al-Harith helps Abu Zayd to retrieve his stolen camel. Illustration for the 27th maqamat, from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford
