The wine poem (khamriyya) is a classical form of Arabic poetry that dates to the pre-Islamic Arabic cultures of southern Mesopotamia. The genre consolidated into a distinct literary style under the Umayyads, particularly in the city of Kufa, located in present-day Iraq. The genre was popularized throughout the growing Islamic ecumene, and consequenty diversified in both meaning and form. Beginning in the 9th century, mystics applied to the wine poem the concept of mystical intoxication – the loss of self upon the discovery of divine love. Among the most well-known mystical khamriyya is "al-Qasida al-Khamriyya," composed in 13th-century Cairo by the poet ʿUmar Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 1234–35 A.D.). More than half a millennium after al-Fāriḍ composed his poem, Ottoman calligrapher Himmet-zade İsmâ‘îl (d. 1759) copied "al-Qasida al-Khamriyya" in twelve folios bound as an accordian fold album, known as a muraqqaʿ. Himmet-zade İsmâ‘îl composed the poem using the thuluth style of calligraphy for the large script and the naskh style for the small script. Each calligraphic panel is accentuated by two margins – one pink, one gold – and a larger outer border made from marbled papers with a craquelure appearance.

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