Persian calligraphy or Iranian calligraphy ( fa, ), is the

calligraphy 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 ...

of the

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...

. It is one of the most revered arts throughout the

history of Iran The history of Iran is intertwined with the history of a larger region known as Greater Iran, comprising the area from Anatolia in the west to the borders of Ancient India and the Syr Darya in the east, and from the Caucasus and the Eurasian S ...

History

History of Nasta'liq

After the introduction of Islam in the 7th century, Persians adapted the Arabic alphabet to

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 developed the contemporary Persian alphabet. The Arabic alphabet has 28 characters. An additional four letters were added by Iranians, which resulted in the 32 letters currently present in the Persian alphabet. Around one thousand years ago,

Ibn Muqlah Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muqla ( ar, أبو علي محمد بن علي ابن مقلة, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muqla; 885/6 – 20 July 940/1), commonly known as Ibn Muqla, was an official of the Abbasid Caliphate of Pers ...

( fa, ) and his brother created six genres of Iranian calligraphy, namely "Mohaqiq", "Reyhan", "Sols", "Naskh", "Toqi" and "

Reqa ''Reqā ( ar, رِقَاع) is one of the six scripts of Arabic calligraphy. ''Reqa was used for private correspondence on small papers or for nonreligious books and texts. Ibn al-Nadim mentioned in his book Al-Fehrest, that the inventor of ...

". These genres were common for four centuries in Persia. In the 7th century (Hijri calendar), Hassan Farsi Kateb combined the "Naskh" and "Reqah" styles and invented a new genre of Persian calligraphy named " Ta'liq". In the 14th century, Mir Ali Tabrizi combined two major scripts of his time, i.e. Naskh and Taliq, and created a new Persian calligraphic style called "Nas’taliq". In the past 500 years

Nastaʿlīq ''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write the Perso-Arabic script in the Persian and Urdu languages, often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for Arabic. ''Nasta ...

(also anglicized as Nastaleeq; fa, ') has been the predominant style for writing 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 17th century Morteza Gholi Khan Shamlou and Mohammad Shafi Heravi created a new genre called cursive Nastaʿlīq Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq ( fa, )). Almost a century later, Abdol-Majid Taleqani, who was a prominent artist at the time, brought this genre to its highest level. This calligraphic style is based on the same rules as Nas’taliq. However, cursive Nas’taliq has a few significant differences: it provides more flexible movements, and it is slightly more stretched and curved. Yadollah Kaboli is one of the most prominent contemporary calligraphers within this style. File:Sultan 'Ali Mashhadi (Persian, 1442-1519). Folio of Poetry From the Divan of Sultan Husayn Mirza, ca. 1490.jpg, ''Folio of Poetry From the Divan of Sultan Husayn Mirza'', ca. 1490.

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

. File:Agra castle India persian poem.jpg, Calligraphy of Persian poems on large pishtaq at the

Agra Fort The Agra Fort is a historical fort in the city of Agra in India also known as the Red Fort. Rebuilt by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1565 and completed in 1573, it served as the main residence of the rulers of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when t ...

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 ...

File:Miremad-1.jpg, Chalipa panel, Mir Emad. File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art cal 0175.2.jpg, Calligraphic composition by Shah Mahmud Nishapuri, a 16th century master of Nasta'liq

Contemporary Persian calligraphy

In 1950, the '' Iran's Association of Calligraphers'' was founded by Hossein Mirkhani, Ali Akbar Kaveh, Ebrahim Bouzari, Hassan Mirkhani and Mehdi Baiani. For an overview of Persian calligraphy's development within Afghanistan, see "Calligraphy during last two centuries in Afghanistan" (1964), by Azizuddin Vakili.

Modernist movement

Zendeh Roudi,

Jalil Rasouli Mohammad Jalil Rasouli (born 1947 in Hamedan) is a notable Iranian artist and Persian calligrapher. He is one of the pioneering figures in modernist movement of Persian calligraphy. See also *Persian art Persian art or Iranian art () has ...

Parviz Tanavoli Parviz Tanavoli (born 1937) is an Iranian sculptor, painter, educator, and art historian. He is a pioneer within the Saqqakhaneh school, a neo-traditionalist art movement. Tanavoli has been one of the most expensive Iranian artists in sales. Tanav ...

, and Nima Behnoud use Persian calligraphy and Rumi poetry in dress designing.

Post modernism

Abol Atighetchi uses combination of colored naskh, suluth and kufic style calligraphy with large letters in a single large format acrylic painting for his work presentation and circles in gold leaf or simple color to decorate but in the Nastaligh style many colorful geometrical forms and lines are used to modernize the painting and the same technique is used to modernize the large format birds of bessmel ( fa, ), all drawn with large letters. This style of work can be classified as post-modern.

Genres

Nasta'liq script ''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write the Perso-Arabic script in the Persian and Urdu languages, often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for Arabic. ''Nas ...

* Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq (Cursive Nasta'liq) *Naghashi-khat (Painting-Calligraphy combined)

Most notable figures

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 ...

* Mir Emad *

Mírzá ʻAbbás Núrí Mírzá ʻAbbás-i-Núrí ( fa, ميرزا عباس نوري, d. 1839), more commonly known as Mírzá Buzurg, was the father of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. Mírzá Buzurg was a nobleman from the Persian province of Núr ...

Mishkín-Qalam Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Isfahání (surnamed Mis͟hkín-Qalam () meaning "jet-black pen"; 18261912) was a prominent Baháʼí and one of the nineteen Apostles of Baháʼu'lláh, as well as a famous calligrapher of 19th-century Persia. He is the autho ...

Gholam Hossein Amirkhani Gholam Hossein Amirkhani (استاد غلامحسین امیرخانی) is a Persian calligrapher, born in 1939 in Taleghan, Iran. He is the chief of Iran calligraphers council, which established in 1950. He became a member of the Iran Calligraphe ...

References

External links

*Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī, Calligraphy, ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'', at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/calligraphy
Brief history of Persian CalligraphyAbout history of Persian Calligraphy and its different stylesAnthology of Iranian Masters of Calligraphy
{{Intangible Heritage Iran Islamic calligraphy Iranian art Persian art