Persian calligraphy

History

After the introduction of Islam in the 7th century, Persians adapted the Arabic alphabet to Persian 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 () and his brother created six genres of Iranian calligraphy, namely "Mohaqiq", "Reyhan", "Sols", "Naskh", "Toqi" and "Reqa". These genres were common for four centuries in Persia. In the 7th century (Hijri calendar), Hassan Farsi Kateb combined the "Naskh" and "Reqa" 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 (also anglicized as Nastaleeq; fa) has been the predominant style for writing the Perso-Arabic script.

In the 17th century Morteza Gholi Khan Shamlou and Mohammad Shafi Heravi created a new genre called cursive Nastaʿlīq Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq ()). 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, . Brooklyn Museum. File:Agra castle India persian poem.jpg|Calligraphy of Persian poems on large pishtaq at the Agra Fort, India 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 File:Imam-ali-moalla-1.png|Calligraphy of the name Ali in the Moalla script.

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.

Modernist movement

Zendeh Roudi, Jalil Rasouli, Parviz Tanavoli, 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 Nasta’liq 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 (), all drawn with large letters. This style of work can be classified as post-modern.

Genres

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

Most notable figures

• Mir Ali Tabrizi
• Mir Emad
• Gholam Hossein Amirkhani

References

References

1. "History - Persian Calligraphy- All about Persian Calligraphy".