The verb 'Jxalq' is originally an Arabic-Persian word. The verb at the same time means "to masturbate" and "to create". According to Qazi Mir Ahmad Monshi Qomi, a 16th century Iranian art historian, the term was coined by Mehmed Siyah Qualem, a legendary 15th century Iranian painter and inventor. Qazi Ahmad Qomi in his book, golestan-e-Honar, writes: And once this painter (Siyah Qualem) told the greatest of the courtier painters, Master Bihzad "all we artisans do is jxalq."
In the 15th century Gentile Bellini spent 18 months in Istanbul as "cultural ambassador" and painted his famous painting The Sultan Mehmet II (1480). Bihzad and Bellini have two similar paintings called Portrait of an Artist. To answer why the term exists in some Latin languages, some naïve historians came to believe that Bihzad has taught this term to Bellini during collaboration or a cultural exchange between the Ottoman Empire and Iran. Bazil Gray for instance believes that after the death of Mehmet, Bellini's Portrait of an Artist was sent first to the Aqqoyunlu Palace in Tebriz, then to the Safavid Palace in Iran. Before it was returned to the Ottoman palace this extraordinary painting was copied by Bihzad. The piece is now kept in the Freer Museum in Washington DC.