Nasta'liq

Chalipa panel, Mir Emad.

Nasta'liq (نستعلیق nasta'līq) is a calligraphy style for mainly Persio-Arabic. It was developed in Īrān in 14th and 15th centuries. Contrary to many other Arabic scripts, no diacritic mark (Harakāt) is transcribed in Nasta'līq. It has thus rarely been used for writing Arabic texts. Instead, numerous Persian poems and prose have been scripted in Nasta'līq. Nasta'līq has extensively been practiced in Īrān as a form of art. A less elaborate version of Nasta'līq serves as the preferred style for writing Urdū, a standardized register of Hindustānī and an official language of Pākistān and India. The Nasta'līq script was also used for writing Ottoman Turkish.

Nasta'līq is amongst the most fluid calligraphy styles for Arabic alphabet. It has short verticals with no serifs, and long horizontal strokes. It is written using a piece of trimmed reed with a tip of 5-10 mm, called "qalam" ("pen," in Arabic), and carbon ink, named "davat." The nib of a qalam is usually split in the middle to facilitate ink absorption.

Two important forms of Nasta'līq panels are Chalipa and Siah-Masq. A Chalipa ("cross," in Persian) panel usually consists of four diagonal hemistiches, clearly signifying a moral, ethical or poetic concept. Siah-Masq ("inked drill") panels however communicate via composition and form, rather than content. In Siah-Masq, repeating a few (sometimes even one) letters or words virtually inks the whole panel. The content is thus of less significance and not clearly accessible.

Contents

1 History
2 Notable Nasta'līq calligraphists
3 Etiquette
4 Nasta'līq typesetting
5 See also
6 External links

History

After Islāmic conquest of Persia, Īrānians adopted Arabic alphabet and the art of Arabic calligraphy flourished in Īrān alongside other Islāmic countries. Apparently, Mir Ali Tabrizi (14th century) developed Nasta'līq by combining two existing scripts of Naskh and Ta'liq. Hence, it was originally called Naskh-Ta'liq.

Nasta'līq thrived gradually and many prominent calligraphists contributed to its splendor and beauty. It is believed that Nasta'līq reached its highest elegance in Mir Emad's works. The current practice of Nasta'līq is however heavily based on Mirza Reza Kalhor's manner. Kalhor modified and adapted Nasta'līq to be easily used with printing machines, which in return helped wide dissemination of his transcripts. He also devised methods for teaching Nasta'līq and specified clear proportional rules for it, which many could follow. The Muġal Empire used Persian as the court language during their rule over the Indian subcontinent. During this time, Nasta'līq became in widespread use in South Asia, including Pākistān, India, and Bangladesh. The influence remains to this day. In Pākistān, almost everything in Urdū is written in the script, and you see more Nasta'līq in this country than anywhere else in the world. In Hyderābād, Lakʰnau, and other cities in India with large Urdū-speaking populations, many street signs and such are written in Nasta'līq. The situation of Nasta'līq in Bangladesh used to be the same as in Pākistān until 1971, when Urdū ceased to remain an official language of the country. Today, only a few neighborhoods (mostly inhabited by Bihāris) in Ḍʰākā and Chiṭṭagong retain the influence of the Persian and Nasta'līq of the Muġals.

Nasta'līq is a descendant of Naskh and Ta'liq. Shekasteh Nasta'liq (literarily "broken Nasta'līq") style is a successor of Nasta'līq.

Notable Nasta'līq calligraphists

Mir Ali Tabrizi
Mir Emad
Mirza Jafar Tabrizi
Abdul Rashid Deilami
Sultan Ali Mashadi
Mir Ali Heravi (16 A.D.)
Emad Ul-Kottab
Gholam Reza Esfehani
Mirza Reza Kalhor
Mirza Abbas Nuri, later known as Mirza Buzurg-i-Nuri (Vizir at the court of Fath Ali Shah and father of Baha-u-llah).
Áqá Husayn-í-Isfahání better known as Mishkín-Qalam (The Musk Scented - Jet Black Pen).

And among contemporary artists:

Hassan Mirkhani
Hossein Mirkhani
Abbas Akhavein
Qolam-Hossein Amirkhani.

Etiquette

Islāmic alligraphy was originally used to adorn Islāmic religious texts, specifically the Qur'ān, as pictorial ornaments were prohibited in Islām. Therefore, a sense of sacredness always hovered in the background of calligraphy.

A Nasta'līq disciple was supposed to qualify him/herself spiritually for being a calligrapher, besides learning how to prepare qalam, ink, paper and more importantly master Nasta'līq. For instance see Adab al-Masq, a manual of penmanship, attributed to Mir Emad.

Nasta'līq typesetting

Producing high quality Nasta'līq in print is a demanding process. For example, Monotype's attempt to implement Nasta'līq for photo composer typesetting resulted in a repertoire of 20,000 different glyphs.

External links

Iranian Calligraphers Association [link]
[Short introduction to Persian calligraphy (in french)]
[Free Open Type Unicode compliant fonts covering both Nasta'liq and Naskh]
[Free True Type font covering basic Nasta'liq]
[Free Nasta'liq Writer from SIL] (Macintosh only)