Riza-yi 'Abbasi stands with Bihzad as one of the greatest of Iranian artists. As the leading painter at the court of Shah 'Abbas I (1587-1629), Riza often expressed the progressive mood of Safavid Iran in his work. During the early years of 'Abbas's Reign, when the Shah was occupied with the unification of the country, Riza's paintings and drawings depicted the young, the hope of the future state. By the 1620s he had begun to copy drawings by Bihzad, the great painter, and he continued to produce many portraits of rare insight. Each stage of Riza's development exerted enormous influence: working within the idiom he had popularised, Iranian artisits maintained a distinctive style until the end of the seventeenth century, when Western attitudes and practices inundated the traditional art of Iran. _Rebellious Reformer_ provides a complete catalogue of Riza's work and analyses the relationship of his life to his stylistic development. All available extant works signed by or attributed to Riza are illustrated in colour or duotone.