Safavid court painter Mirza 'Ali, a native of western Iran, was a son of the painter Sultan Muhammad, who was one of his teachers.
A master of line, Muhammadi (so called after his great father) had begun to paint while still young.
The surviving examples of his work were executed between the 1530s and the 1580s, an unusually long period of activity.
He has worked on some of the greatest Safavid manuscripts, including Tahmasp I's Shah-nameh and the Khamseh (1539–43) of Nezami.
His debt to the Herat painters of the school of Behzad is clear, but he is best known for a calligraphic, wiry line and a mannered, almost expressionist, personal style.
This assertion of the individuality of the painter marks Safavid painting hereafter.
Like his contemporaries, Muhammadi signs few of his paintings.