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The taʿlīq () script is a calligraphic hand in
Islamic calligraphy Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship and calligraphy, in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the Arabic script#Additional letters used in other languages, alphabets derived from it. It is a highly stylized and struc ...
typically used for official documents written in Persian. Literally meaning ''hanging'' or ''suspended'' script it emerged in the mid-13th century and was widely used, especially in chanceries of
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
ian states, although from the early 16th century onward it lost ground to another ''hanging'' script, the increasingly popular ''
nastaliq ''Nastaliq'' (; ; ), also Romanization of Persian, romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'' or ''Nastaleeq'' (), is one of the main book hand, calligraphic hands used to write Arabic script and is used for some Indo-Iranian languages, predominantly Persi ...
''. ''Taliq'' had a long gestation. The Persian style of writing '' naskh'' underwent gradual changes from the 11th century onward, and those changes, together with some borrowings from '' tawqi'' and '' riqa''', resulted in the emergence of ''taliq'' script in the mid-13th century. ''Taliq'' shares many peculiarities with these three scripts, "but is more stylized. It revels in curvilinear elements, extraneous loops, extreme contrasts between compression and expansion, and connected letters, all traits that make it difficult for the novice to decipher". In ''taliq'' words and detached letters could be joined, which allowed for speedy writing and made it suitable for official correspondence. By the late thirteenth century ''taliq'' had achieved a definitive style, sometimes called ''taliq-i qadim'' (old ''taliq'') or ''taliq-i asl'' (original ''taliq''), "probably driven in part by the burgeoning
Ilkhanid The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (), and known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known ...
bureaucracy’s need to standardize written Persian". (see
firman A firman (; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods such firmans were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The English word ''firman'' co ...
of Sadr al-Din Zanjani, vizier of ilkhan
Gaykhatu Gaykhatu (Mongolian script:; ) was the fifth Ilkhanate ruler in Iran. He reigned from 1291 to 1295. His Buddhist baghshi gave him the Tibetan name Rinchindorj () which appeared on his paper money. Early life He was born to Abaqa and Nukdan K ...
). In order to write even faster, chancery clerks (''munshi'') streamlined the script by increasing the number of unorthodox ligatures and dropping the pointing on many letters. Some letters were reduced in size, while others were written with thinner strokes or in new shapes. This new style known as ''shikasta taliq'' (broken, i.e., truncated and simplified ''taliq'') (sometimes also called ''khatt-i tarassol'' - "correspondence script") was used systematically from the end of the 14th century. According to
Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...
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, al ...
or Qadi Ahmad) ''shikasta taliq'' have been invented, or at least defined, by Taj al-Din Salmani, a scribe working in the court of
Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...
(r. 1370-1405), and perfected by ʿAbd-al-Hayy Astarabadi, chief clerk under Timur's grandson Abu Sa'id (r. 1451-1469). ʿAbd-al-Hayy developed two varieties of ''taliq'' – a more flowing style associated with the Timurids in Khurasan and a more linear and solid style associated with
Aq Qoyunlu The Aq Qoyunlu or the White Sheep Turkomans (, ; ) was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two trib ...
in Iraq and Azerbaijan. The biographers mention Darvish 'Abdallah Munshi as the most famous calligrapher in the Khurasan style (see letter by his hand). The most important ''taliq'' calligrapher of Safavid period was Ekhtiyar Monshi Gonabadi (d. 1582), after whom "no calligraphers dedicated themselves with the same seriousness to Ta‘liq calligraphy because the same century saw the flowering of the Nasta‘liq script". Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi stressed that ''shikasta taliq'' "is a script devised for rapid writing and therefore one in which intertwining is allowed, that is, unjoinable letters as well as two or more words are joined together. The strokes, except in certain contexts, are predominantly round, and the pen is moved smoothly. The sizes of letters and words are not uniform, and if there is any consistency in the composition, it is very different from the neat symmetry to be seen in other scripts". In the 15th century ''taliq'' was also used in the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
. Following the expansion of imperial chancery after conquest of Constantinople in 1453 Ottoman scribes began to elaborate ''taliq'' script, developing the distinctive Ottoman style known as '' divani''. ''Taliq'' is also generally used as the name for the ''nastaliq'' script in the Turkish language and often in the Arabic language. Traditionally ''taliq'' was considered to be the basis of the ''nastaliq'', but more recent research derive this script from the '' naskh'' alone. File:Gaykhatu Farman.jpg,
Firman A firman (; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods such firmans were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The English word ''firman'' co ...
of Sadr al-Din Zanjani, vizier of ilkhan
Gaykhatu Gaykhatu (Mongolian script:; ) was the fifth Ilkhanate ruler in Iran. He reigned from 1291 to 1295. His Buddhist baghshi gave him the Tibetan name Rinchindorj () which appeared on his paper money. Early life He was born to Abaqa and Nukdan K ...
, dated Jumada II 692/June 1292. Art and History Collection on loan to the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., focusing on Culture of Asia, Asian art. The Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the Uni ...
File:Opening page from the manuscript of "Hikmat al-ʿIshraq" by al-Suhrawardi.jpg, Opening page from the manuscript of ''Hikmat al-ʿIshraq'' transcribed by Sayyid Muhammad Munshi for the library of sultan
Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...
.
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, dated 882 AH (1477-8 CE).
Topkapı Palace The Topkapı Palace (; ), or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih List of districts of Istanbul, district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the ad ...
Museum File:Encomium to the sultan Yaʿqub Aqqoyunlu,.jpg,
Encomium ''Encomium'' (: ''encomia'') is a Latin word deriving from the Ancient Greek ''enkomion'' (), meaning "the praise of a person or thing." Another Latin equivalent is '' laudatio'', a speech in praise of someone or something. Originally was the ...
to the sultan Yaʿqub Aqqoyunlu (r. 1478-1490), copied in shikasta taliq by ʿAbd al- Hayy ibn Hafiz Shaykh Muhammad al-Bukhari.
Topkapı Palace The Topkapı Palace (; ), or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih List of districts of Istanbul, district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the ad ...
Museum File:Letter in Ta'liq Script MET DP-12721-001.jpg, Letter in ''taliq'' by Darvish 'Abdallah Munshi. Iran, A.H. 911 (1505–6 CE).
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
File:Closing page from a ziyaratnama (letter of recommendation) issued by the shrine of Imam Riza at Mashhad on 5 July 1533.jpg, Closing page from a ''ziyaratnama'' (letter of recommendation) issued by the shrine of Imam Reza at
Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...
on 14 Dhu'l Hijja 944/5 July 1533. Letter recommend Darvish Khidr Shah as a worthy person who had performed the pilgrimage to Mashhad.
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
File:Farman of Jalal-ud-Din Mohammad Akbar 92.28 Paper 1560 C.E. Persian; Taliq 52 x 26 cm.jpg,
Firman A firman (; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods such firmans were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The English word ''firman'' co ...
of
Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...
Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...
, dated 1560 CE. National Museum of India


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Taliq Script Islamic calligraphy Persian calligraphy Persian orthography Handwriting script