''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also

romanize Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

d as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main

calligraphic hand Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

s used to write the

Perso-Arabic script The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cent ...

in the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

. ''Nastaliq'' developed in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

from '' naskh'' beginning in the 13th century and remains very widely used in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and as a minority script in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and other countries for written poetry and as a form of art.

History

The name ''nastaliq'' "is a contraction of the Persian , meaning a hanging or suspended '' naskh''". Virtually all Safavid authors (like

Dust Muhammad Dust Muhammad (or Doust Muhammad) was a Persian painter of miniatures, calligrapher, and art historian, active from about 1510 to 1564. Later in life he worked in India. Early career Dust Muhammad was born in Herat in the late 15th century, alth ...

or Qadi Ahmad) attributed the invention of to

Mir Ali Tabrizi Mir Ali Tabrizi ( fa, ) was a distinguished Iranian calligrapher of the 14th century, to whom the invention of Nas-Taliq calligraphy style is attributed. Early life He lived in the 14th century. Historians have not been able to unveil details ...

, who lived at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. That tradition was questioned by Elaine Wright, who traced evolution of ''nastaliq'' in 14th century Iran and showed how it developed gradually among scribes in

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

. Moreover, according to her studies ''nastaliq'' has its origin not in combining ''naskh'' and '' taliq'', as was commonly thought, but from ''naskh'' alone. In addition to study of the practice of calligraphy Elaine Wright also found a document written by

Jafar Tabrizi Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī Tabrizi (also known as Farīd al-Dīn and Qeblat al-Kottāb) was a renowned master in calligraphy as well as a poet and scribe in the 15th century. He was noted for being competent in Nastaʿlīq as well as other six classical sc ...

c. 1430, according to whom: Thus "our earliest written source also credits Shirazi scribes with the development of ''nastaʿliq'' and Mir ʿAli Tabrizi with its canonization". The picture of origin of ''nastaliq'' presented by Elaine Wright was further complicated by studies of Francis Richard, who on the basis of some manuscripts from Tabriz argued that its early evolution wasn't confined to Shiraz. Finally, many authors point out that development of ''nastaʿliq'' was a process which takes few centuries. For example, Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi, Ali Alparslan and Sheila Blair recognize gradual shift towards ''nastaliq'' in some 13th century manuscripts. Hamid Reza Afsari traces first elements of the style in 11th-century copies of Persian translations of the Qur'an. Persian differs from Arabic in its proportion of straight and curved letters. It also lacks the definite article ''al-'', whose upright ''alif'' and ''lam'' are responsible for distinct verticality and rhythm of the text written in Arabic. Hanging scripts like ''taliq'' and ''nastaliq'' were particularly suitable for writing Persian - when ''taliq'' was used for court documents, ''nastaliq'' was developed for Persian poetry, "whose

hemistich A hemistich (; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , from "half" and "verse") is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Latin verse, Latin and Greek poetry, the hemist ...

es encourage the pile-up of letters against the intercolumnar ruling. Only later was it adopted for prose". The first master of ''nastaliq'' was aforementioned

, who passed his style to his son ʿUbaydallah. The student of Ubaydallah,

(d. 1431) (see quote above), moved to

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...

, when he becomes the head of the

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes an ...

(''kitabkhana'') of prince

Baysunghur Ghiyath ud-din Baysunghur, commonly known as Baysonqor or Baysongor, Baysonghor or (incorrectly) as Baysunqar, also called Sultan Bāysonḡor Bahādor Khan (1397 – 1433) was a prince from the house of Timurids. He was known as a patron of arts ...

(therefore his epithet Baysunghuri). Jafar trained several students in ''nastaliq'', of whom the most famous was Azhar Tabrizi (d. 1475). Its classical form ''nastaliq'' achieved under

Sultan Ali Mashhadi Sultan ‛Ali Mashhadi, fa, سلطان‌علی مشهدی (full name: Sultan Ali-i Muhammad-i Mashhadi) ( fl 1453–1519, d. 1520) was a Persian calligrapher and master of nastaliq script. Born in Mashhad, Sultan ‛Ali lost his father when he ...

(d. 1520), a student of Azhar (or perhaps one of Azhar's students) who worked for Sultan Husayn Bayqara (1469 - 1506) and his vizier

Ali-Shir Nava'i 'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī ( Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, fa, نظام‌الدین علی‌شیر نوایی) was a Timurid poet, writer ...

. At the same time different style of ''nastaliq'' developed in western and southern Iran. It was associated with ʿAbd al-Rahman Khwarazmi, the calligrapher of the

Pir Budaq Abu'l-Fath Pir Budaq (died 1466) more commonly known simply as Pir Budaq (alternatively Pir Budak or Pir Budagh), son of Jahan Shah, Jahān Shāh of the Kara Koyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu dynasty, was governor of Shiraz (1456-1460) and of Baghdad (1460-66 ...

Qara Qoyunlu (1456-1466), and after him was followed by his children, ʿAbd al-Karim Khwarazmi and ʿAbd al-Rahim Anisi (both active at the court of

Ya'qub Beg Yaqub b. Uzun Hasan ( fa, یعقوب بن اوزون حسن) or Abū al-Muẓaffar Yaʿqūb Bahādur Ḫān, commonly known as Sultan Ya'qub ( fa, سلطان یعقوب; az, Sultan Yaqub ) was the ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu from 1478 until his deat ...

Aq Qoyunlu) (1478 - 1490). This more angular western Iranian style was largely dominant at the beginning of the

Safavid era The Safavid dynasty (; fa, دودمان صفوی, Dudmâne Safavi, ) was one of Iran's most significant ruling dynasties reigning from 1501 to 1736. Their rule is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history, as well as one of th ...

, but then lost ground to the more fluid eastern style canonized by Sultan Ali Mashhadi - although it continued to be widely used in the Indian subcontinent. The most famous calligrapher of the next generation in eastern lands was

Mir Ali Heravi Mir Ali Heravi, also known as Mir Ali Hossein Heravi and Mir Jan, titled as ''Kateb-e Soltani'', was a prominent Persian calligrapher and calligraphy teacher of Nastaʿlīq script in the 16th century. He was the second significant Persian calligra ...

(d. 1544), who was master of ''nastaliq'', especially renowned for his calligraphic specimens (''qitʿa''). The eastern style of ''nastaliq'' became the predominant style in western Iran, as artists gravitated to work in Safavid royal scriptorium. The most famous of these calligraphers working for court in Tabriz was Shah Mahmud Nishapuri (d. 1564/1565), known especially for unusual choice of ''nastaliq'' as script used for the copy of Qur'an. Its apogeum ''nastaliq'' achieved in writings of

Mir Emad Hassani Mir Emad (born Emad al-Molk Qazvini Hasani ( fa, ),‎ 1554 – August 15, 1615) is perhaps the most celebrated Persian calligrapher. He was born in Qazvin, Iran. It is believed that the Nastaʿlīq style reached its highest elegance in ...

(d. 1615), "whose style was the model in the following centuries". Mir Emad's successors in the 17th and 18th centuries had developed a more elongated style of ''nastaliq'', with wider spaces between words. Mirza Mohammad Reza Kalhor (d. 1892), the most important calligrapher of the 19th century, reintroduced the more compact style, writing words on a smaller scale in a single motion. In the 19th century ''nastaliq'' was also adopted in Iran for litographed books. In the 20th century "the use of ''nastaliq'' declined. After World War II, however, interest in calligraphy and above all in ''nastaliq'' revived, and some outstandingly able masters of the art have since then emerged". The use of ''nastaliq'' very early expanded beyond Iran.

Timurids The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani ( Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Turco-Mongol empire ...

brought it to India and ''nastaliq'' became favorite script at the Persian court of the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. For

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

(1556-1605) and

Jahangir Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Salim (30 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was the fourth Mughal Emperor, who ruled from 1605 until he died in 1627. He was named after the Indian Sufi saint, Salim Chishti. Ear ...

(1605-1627) worked such famous masters of ''nastaliq'' as Muhammad Husayn Kashmiri (d. 1611/1612) and Abd al-Rahim Anbarin-Qalam. Another important practitioner of the script was Abd al-Rashid Daylami (d. 1671), nephew and student of Mir Emad, who after his arrival in India became court calligrapher of

Shah Jahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...

(1628-1658). During this era ''Nastaliq'' became the common script for writing in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

''Nastaliq'' was also adopted in

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, which has always had strong cultural ties to Iran. Here it was known as ''taliq'' (Turkish ''talik''), which shouldn't be confused with Persian ''

taliq script The taʿlīq () script is a style in Islamic calligraphy designed specifically to satisfy the needs of the Persian language. It emerged in the mid-13th century from gradual changes in the '' naskh'' style, and also incorporated influences from '' ...

''. First Iranian calligraphers who brought''nastaliq'' to Ottoman lands, like

Asadullah Kirmani Asadullāh ( ar, أَسَدُ ٱلله), also written Asadollah, Assadullah or Asad Ullah, is a male Muslim given name meaning ''Lion of Allah''. The name was initially used to refer to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's closest kinsmen Ali and Ha ...

(d. 1488), belonged to the western tradition. But relatively early Ottoman calligraphers adopted eastern style of ''nastaliq''. In 17th century student of Mir Emad, Darvish Abdi Bokharai (d. 1647), transplanted his style to Istanbul. The greatest master of ''nastaliq'' in 18th century was Mehmed Yasari (d. 1798), who closely followed Mir Emad. This tradition was further developed by son of Yasari, Mustafa Izzet (d. 1849), who was a real founder of distinct Ottoman school of ''nastaliq''. He introduced new and precise proportions of the script, different than in Iranian tradition. The most important member of this school in the second half of the 19th century was

Sami Efendi Sami Efendi ( ota, سامى افندي, Turkish language, Modern Turkish: ''Hattat Mehmet Sâmi Efendi'') (1858-1912), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman calligrapher. Life and work He was born Mehmed Sami on 13 March 1838 in Haydarhâne district of ...

(d. 1912), who taught many famous practitioners of ''nastaliq'', like Mehmed Nazif Bey (d. 1913), Mehmed Hulusi Yazgan (d. 1940) and Necmeddin Okyay (d. 1976). The specialty of Ottoman school was ''celî nastaliq'' used in inscriptions and mosque plates.

Nastaliq

Chayyam guyand kasan behescht ba hur chosch ast small

' or ' ( fa, , , "cursive " or literally "broken ") style is a "streamlined" form of . Its development is connected with the fact that "the increasing use of nastaʿlīq and consequent need to write it quickly exposed it to a process of gradual attrition". The ''shekasteh nastaliq'' emerged in the early 17th century and differed from proper ''nastaliq'' only in so far as some of the letters were shrunk (shekasta, lit. “broken”) and detached letters and words were sometimes joined. These unauthorized connections "mean that calligraphers can write ''shikasta'' faster than any other script". Manuscripts from this early period show signs of the influence of ''shekasteh taliq''; while having the appearance of a shrunken form of nastaliq, they also contain features of '' taliq'' "due to their being written by scribes who had been trained in taʿlīq". ''Shekasteh nastaliq'' (usually shortened to simply ''skehasteh''), being more easily legible than ''taliq'' gradually replaced the latter as the script of decrees and documents. Later it also came into use for writing prose and poetry. The first important calligraphers of ''shekasteh'' were Mohammad Shafiʿ Heravi (d. 1670–71) (he was known as Shafiʿa and hence ''shekasteh'' was sometimes called ''shafiʿa'' or ''shifiʿa'') and Mortazaqoli Khan Shamlu (d. 1688–89). Both of them produced works of real artistic quality, which doesn't change the fact that in this early phase ''shekasteh'' still lacked consistency (it is especially visible in writing of Mortazaqoli Khan Shamlu). Most modern scholars consider that ''shekasteh'' reached its peak of artistic perfection under

Abdol Majid Taleqani Abdol Majid Taleqani ( fa, عبدالمجید طالقانی; –1771/2) was an eminent Iranian calligrapher of the 18th century. He was the most celebrated 18th-century calligrapher of the '' Shekasteh'' form of Nastaliq, and is also credited wi ...

(d. 1771), "who gave the script its distinctive and definite form". The tradition of Taleqani was later followed by Mirza Kuchek Esfahani (d. 1813), Gholam Reza Esfahani (d. 1886–87) and

Ali Akbar Golestaneh ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 common era, CE) was the last of four Rashidun, Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was ...

(d. 1901). The added frills made ''shekasteh'' increasingly difficult to read and it remained the script of documents and decrees, "while ''nastaʿliq'' retained its pre-eminence as the main calligraphic style". The need for simplification of ''shekasteh'' resulted in development of secretarial style (''shekasteh-ye tahriri'') by writers like Adib-al-Mamalek Farahani (d. 1917) and Nezam Garrusi (d. 1900). The secretarial style is a simplified form of ''shekasteh'' which is faster to write and read, but less artistic. Long used in governmental and other institutions in Iran ''shekasteh'' degenerated in the first half of the 20th century, but later again engaged the attention of calligraphers. ''Shekasteh'' was used only in Iran and to a small extent in Afghanistan and Ottoman Empire. Its use in Afghanistan was different from the Persian norm and sometimes only as experimental devices (''tafannon'')

Nastaliq typesetting

Typography first started with attempts to develop a metallic type for the script, but all such efforts failed.

Fort William College Fort William College (also known as the College of Fort William) was an academy of oriental studies and a centre of learning, founded on 18 August 1800 by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India, located within the Fort William c ...

developed a Type, which was not close enough to and hence was never used other than by the college library to publish its own books. The State of Hyderabad Dakan (now in India) also attempted to develop a Typewriter but this attempt failed miserably and the file was closed with the phrase “Preparation of on commercial basis is impossible”. Basically, in order to develop such a metal type, thousands of pieces would be required. Modern typography began with the invention of ''Noori Nastaleeq'' which was first created as a digital font in 1981 through the collaboration of

Ahmed Mirza Jamil Ahmad Mirza Jamil ( ur, ; 21 February 192117 February 2014) was a Pakistani calligrapher best known for creation of Noori style of Nastaliq, which was first created as a digital typeface (font, Noori Nastaliq) in 1981. Awards and recognition * ...

(as calligrapher) and

Monotype Imaging Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use with ...

(formerly Monotype Corp & Monotype Typography). Although this was a ground-breaking solution employing over 20,000 ligatures (individually designed character combinations) which provided accurate results and allowed newspapers such as Pakistan's ''

Daily Jang The ''Daily Jang'' ( ur, ) is an Urdu newspaper headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. It is the oldest newspaper of Pakistan in continuous publication since its foundation in 1939, first published during World War II, hence the name (Jang) translat ...

'' to use digital typesetting instead of an army of calligraphers, it suffered from two problems in the 1990s: (a) its non-availability on standard platforms such as

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...

, and (b) the non-

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...

nature of text entry, whereby the document had to be created by commands in Monotype's proprietary

page description language In digital printing, a page description language (PDL) is a computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap (or generally raster graphics). An overlapping term is printer control la ...

InPage

In 1994,

InPage InPage is a word processor and page layout software by Concept Software Pvt. Ltd., an Indian information technology company. It is used for languages such as Urdu, Balochi, Persian, Pashto and Arabic under Windows and Apple Mac. It was first dev ...

Urdu, which is a fully functional page layout software for Windows akin to

QuarkXPress QuarkXPress is a desktop publishing software for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. It runs on macOS and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc. in 1987 and is still owned and ...

, was developed for Pakistan's newspaper industry by an Indian software company Concept Software Pvt Ltd. It offered the ''Noori Nastaliq'' font licensed from Monotype Imaging. This font, with its vast ligature base of over 20,000, is still used in current versions of the software for Windows. As of 2009

has become Unicode based, supporting more languages, and the ''Faiz Lahori Nastaliq'' font with Kasheeda has been added to it along with compatibility with OpenType Unicode fonts. Nastaliq Kashish has been made for the first time in the history of Typography.

Cross platform Nastaliq fonts

* Windows 8 was the first version of Microsoft Windows to have native Nastaliq support, through Microsoft's "Urdu Typesetting" font. Noto Nastaliq 2020-05-30 004037

* Google has an open-source Nastaliq font called Noto Nastaliq Urdu. Apple provides this font on all Mac installations since macOS High Sierra. Likewise, Apple has carried this font on iOS devices since iOS 11. *

Awami Nastaliq Awami Nastaliq (''Awami'' derived from the adjectival form for Urdu word ''awam'') is a Nasta'liq-script font designed by SIL's Peter Martin for Graphite aware applications. It requires a recent version of Firefox, LibreOffice, XeTeX XeTeX ...

features a more extensive character set than most Nastaliq typefaces, supporting:

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Balochi,

, Khowar, Palula, Saraiki, Shina. *

Amar Nastaleeq Amar Nastaleeq () is a ''Nastaliq'' style Embedded OpenType and TrueType, TrueType Font which was lowest in size, created for Embedded OpenType, web embedding on Urdu websites in 2013. The font was announced by Urdu poet Fahmida Riaz. Jang Group o ...

was created for web embedding on

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Fahmida Riaz.

Letter forms

For the Arabic alphabet, and many others derived from it, letters are regarded as having two or three general forms each, based on their position in the word (though obviously

Arabic calligraphy Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy based on the Arabic alphabet. It is known in Arabic as ''khatt'' ( ar, خط), derived from the word 'line', 'design', or 'construction'. Kufic is the oldest form of th ...

can add a great deal of complexity). But the Nastaliq style uses more than three general forms for many letters, even in non-decorative documents. For example, most documents written in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

References

Bibliography

External links

Rumicode
Online Service For Calligraphy
Nastaliq Online
Online Service For Calligraphy
Iranian Calligraphers Association

Nastaliq Writer
for Macintosh by

SIL SIL, Sil and sil may refer to: Organizations * Servis Industries Limited, Pakistan * Smithsonian Institution Libraries * SIL International, formerly Summer Institute of Linguistics * Apex Silver Mines (former American Stock Exchange ticker symb ...

InPage Urdu
Official InPage Urdu DTP software site
Faiz Nastaliq
Official Faiz site
Profiles and works of World Islamic calligraphy

Awami Nastaliq
A Nastaliq font by SIL International {{DEFAULTSORT:Nastaliq Script Islamic calligraphy Persian calligraphy Persian orthography Urdu calligraphy Iranian inventions

History

Nastaliq

Nastaliq typesetting

InPage

Cross platform Nastaliq fonts

Letter forms

See also

References

Bibliography

External links