Abrī, a kind of decorated marbled paper produced by mixing a variety of paints, which create dense, swirling patterns reminiscent of clouds or waves. This term is not to be confused with abr (cloud) or abr-sāzī (use of cloud forms), which is one of the seven motifs of the art of Persian painting (q.v. Abr). Marbled paper was used to decorate the borders of fine manuscripts, albums (muraqqaʿāt), the backgrounds of drawings and calligraphic samples, book covers, endpapers (or fly-leaves), the background on pen-cases and lacquer boxes. Today it is more often used …