Mirza Mohammad Shafi a.k.a Wesaal Shirazi was born around 1700s in Shiraz, Iran.

He was a poet, calligrapher and musician. He was not happy about his poetry since he sold his poetic praises to affluent leaders of his time. He suffered from lack of funds for an expensive household and many children he had, therefore he succumbed to write praises. However, he did not write trashy praises mostly they are fine pieces of literature filled with wisdom and spirituality. His main vice was boasting about himself in some of his poetry, which I do not really think that big a deal but the contemporary Iranian scholars considered it important.

He has described his poetic work like a peacock, beautiful bird with ugliest feet. This is a Farsi phrase indicating tainted beauty by his vices.

His calligraphy has endured to this date in museums in Iran and he is still considered one of the top calligraphers of Iran. In this page I am including some scans of his art as well as his son’s portrait of Wesaal.

I admire his work; it is the epic of clarity and conciseness. Although poetry itself is an ambiguous langue; Wesaal’s work makes difficult Sufi concepts clear with unbelievably ambiguous language.

I have decided to make calligraphy the artwork for pages.


Tawhid (One-ness of God) 

Disrobe 

Eyes Talking  

The Inseparable  

The Mirror 


His Calligrpahy  





Background: Portrait of Wesaal by his own son. A lucky man!


© 2003-2002,  Dara Shayda