Ali Reza Abbasi started learning calligraphy in Tabriz as a pupil of Mohammad Hossein Tabrizi and Ala Beyk. Abbasi obtained an outstanding knowledge of Thuluth and Naskh scripts. After that the Ottomans occupied Tabriz in the era of Mohammad Khodabanda, Abbasi left the city and went to Qazvin, the capital of the Safavid dynasty. He lived there in the Jameh mosque of Qazvin. He worked as a calligrapher and completed some parts of inscriptions of the mosque and also some Koran samples. His works on the Jameh mosque of Qazvin made him famous. In the early years of the reign of Abbas I, he was in Farhad Khan's employ, who was an important Sardar of the Safavids and his rank and dignity was increasing under Abbass I. When Sardar Farhad Khan noticed that Alireza Abbasi was an able artist, he appointed him as his personal companion and took Abbasi as his companion to Khorasan and Mazandaran.[4]
^Mohammad Naghshi Tabrizi: Hayāt e Alireza Abbasi, Xošnevis e maruf e dore ye Safaviye (The life of Ali Reza Abbasi, the famous calligrapher in the Safavid era). In: Honar o Mardom(Art and People). volume 2, Nr. 20, 1964, S. 30–31.
