Predominant calligraphic hand of the Perso-Arabic script
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Nastaliq
(
;
[2]
???????
,
Persian:
[næst?æ?liːq]
;
Urdu:
[n?st??ːliːq]
), also
romanized
as
Nasta?l?q
or
Nastaleeq
, is one of the main
calligraphic hands
used to write the
Perso-Arabic script
and it is used for some
Indo-Iranian languages
, predominantly
Classical Persian
,
Kashmiri
,
Punjabi
(
Shahmukhi
) and
Urdu
. It is often used also for
Ottoman Turkish
poetry, but rarely for
Arabic
.
Nastaliq
developed in
Iran
from
naskh
beginning in the 13th century
[4]
and remains widely used in
Iran
,
Afghanistan
,
India
,
Pakistan
, and other countries for written poetry and as a form of art.
[5]
History
[
edit
]
The name
Nastaliq
"is a contraction of the Persian
naskh-i ta'liq
(
Persian
:
?????? ??????
), meaning a hanging or suspended
naskh.
"
Virtually all
Safavid
authors (like
Dust Muhammad
or
Qadi Ahmad
) attributed the invention of
nastaliq
to
Mir Ali Tabrizi
, who lived at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. That tradition was questioned by Elaine Wright, who traced the evolution of
Nastaliq
in 14th-century Iran and showed how it developed gradually among scribes in
Shiraz
. According to her studies,
nastaliq
has its origin from
naskh
alone, and not by combining
naskh
and
taliq
, as was commonly thought. In addition to study of the practice of calligraphy, Elaine Wright also found a document written by
Jafar Tabrizi
c.
1430
, according to whom:
It must be known that
nasta?liq
is derived from
naskh
. Some Shirazi [scribes] modified it [naskh] by taking out the flattened [letter]
kaf
and straight bottom part of [the letters]
sin
,
lam
and
nun
. From other scripts they then brought in a curved
sin
and stretched forms and introduced variations in the thickness of the line. So a new script was created, to be named
nasta?liq
. After a while
Tabrizi
[scribes] modified what Shirazi [scribes] had created by gradually rendering it thinner and defining its canons, until the time when Khwaja Mir ?Ali Tabrizi brought this script to perfection.
Thus, "our earliest written source also credits Shirazi scribes with the development of
nasta?liq
and Mir ?Ali 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 was not confined to Shiraz.
Finally, many authors point out that development of
nasta?liq
was a process which takes a few centuries. For example, Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi, Ali Alparslan and
Sheila Blair
recognize gradual shift towards
nasta?liq
in some 13th-century manuscripts.
[4]
[8]
Hamid Reza Afsari traces first elements of the style in 11th-century copies of Persian translations of the Qur'an.
[10]
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 suitable for writing Persian ? when
taliq
was used for court documents,
nastaliq
was developed for Persian poetry, "whose
hemistiches
encourage the pile-up of letters against the intercolumnar ruling. Only later was it adopted for prose."
The first master of
nastaliq
was aforementioned
Mir Ali Tabrizi
, who passed his style to his son ?Ubaydallah. The student of Ubaydallah,
Jafar Tabrizi
(d. 1431) (see quote above), moved to
Herat
, when he became the head of the
scriptorium
(
kitabkhana
) of prince
Baysunghur
(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
(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
.
At the same time a different style of
nastaliq
developed in western and southern Iran. It was associated with ?Abd al-Rahman Khwarazmi, the calligrapher of the
Pir Budaq
Qara Qoyunlu
(1456?1466) and after him was followed by his children, ?Abd al-Karim Khwarazmi and
?Abd al-Rahim Anisi
(both active at the court of
Ya'qub Beg
Aq Qoyunlu
; 1478?1490). This more angular western Iranian style was largely dominant at the beginning of the
Safavid era
, but then lost to the style canonized by Sultan Ali Mashhadi ? although it continued to be used in the Indian subcontinent.
[10]
The most famous calligrapher of the next generation in eastern lands was
Mir Ali Heravi
(d. 1544), who was master of
nastaliq
, especially renowned for his calligraphic specimens (
qit?a
). 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 the court in Tabriz was Shah Mahmud Nishapuri (d. 1564/1565), known especially for the unusual choice of
nastaliq
as a script used for the copy of the Qur'an.
Its apogeum
nastaliq
achieved in writings of
Mir Emad Hassani
(d. 1615), "whose style was the model in the following centuries."
[10]
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 lithographed 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."
[4]
The use of
nastaliq
very early expanded beyond Iran.
Timurids
brought it to the
India subcontinent
and
nastaliq
became favorite script at the Persian court of the
Mughals
. For
Akbar
(1556?1605) and
Jahangir
(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
(1628?1658). During this era
Nastaliq
became the common script for writing the
Hindustani language
, especially
Standard Urdu
.
[16]
Nastaliq
was also adopted in
Ottoman Empire
, which has always had strong cultural ties to Iran. Here it was known as
taliq
(Turkish
talik
), which should not be confused with Persian
taliq script
. First Iranian calligraphers who brought
nastaliq
to Ottoman lands, like
Asadullah Kirmani
(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
(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
celi nastaliq
used in inscriptions and mosque plates.
[16]
[19]
Shekasteh
Nastaliq
[
edit
]
Shekasteh
or
Shekasteh Nastaliq
(
Persian
:
????? ???????
,
????? ???????
, "cursive
Nastaliq
" or literally "broken
Nastaliq
") style is a "streamlined" form of
Nastaliq
.
[20]
Its development is connected with the fact that "the increasing use of nasta?l?q and consequent need to write it quickly exposed it to a process of gradual attrition."
[4]
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 (shekasteh, lit. "broken") and detached letters and words were sometimes joined.
[4]
These unauthorized connections "mean that calligraphers can write
shekasteh
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 ta?l?q."
[4]
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.
[4]
The first important calligraphers of
shekasteh
were
Mohammad Shafi? Heravi
(d. 1670?71) (he was known as Shafi?a and hence
shekasteh
was sometimes called
shafi?a
or
shifi?a
) and
Mortazaqoli Khan Shamlu
(d. 1688?89). Both of them produced works of real artistic quality, which does not 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
(d. 1771), "who gave the script its distinctive and definite form."
[4]
The tradition of Taleqani was later followed by
Mirza Kuchek Esfahani
(d. 1813),
[23]
Gholam Reza Esfahani
(d. 1886?87)
[24]
and
Ali Akbar Golestaneh
(d. 1901).
[25]
The added frills made
shekasteh
increasingly difficult to read and it remained the script of documents and decrees, "while
nasta?liq
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.
[4]
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
)
[4]
[19]
Nastaliq
typesetting
[
edit
]
Modern
Nastaliq
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
(as calligrapher) and
Monotype Imaging
(formerly Monotype Corp & Monotype Typography).
[27]
Although this employed over 20,000 ligatures (individually designed character combinations),
[28]
it provided accurate results and allowed newspapers such as Pakistan's
Daily Jang
to use digital typesetting instead of an army of calligraphers. It suffered from two problems in the 1990s: its non-availability on standard platforms such as
Microsoft Windows
or
Mac OS
, and the non-
WYSIWYG
nature of text entry, whereby the document had to be created by commands in Monotype's proprietary
page description language
.
Examples of Nastaliq typesetting
-
Persian Chalipa panel,
Mir Emad
In print:
[note]
???? ?? ?? ???? ? ??? ??? ?????
?? ??? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??????
?? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ??????
???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ????? ?????
In
Naskh
styled typeface:
???? ?? ?? ???? ? ??? ??? ?????
?? ??? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??????
?? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ??????
???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ????? ?????
-
An example of the
Nastaliq
script used for writing
Urdu
.
Nastaliq:
? ??? ??? ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??
?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??
Naskh:
? ??? ??? ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??
?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??
-
A
couplet
versified by the Persian poet
Hafez
in Nastaliq font (by Software), in print:
[note]
???? ??????
??? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ????
???????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????
in a
Naskh
styled typeface:
???? ??????
??? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ????
???????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????
InPage
[
edit
]
In 1994,
InPage
Urdu, which is a functional page layout software for Windows akin to
QuarkXPress
, 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 is still used in current versions of the software for Windows. As of 2009,
InPage
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.
Cross platform Nastaliq fonts
[
edit
]
- Windows 8 was the first version of Microsoft Windows to have native Nastaliq support, through Microsoft's "Urdu Typesetting" font.
[29]
Letter forms
[
edit
]
The
Nastaliq
style uses more than three general forms for many letters,
[34]
[35]
even in non-decorative documents. For example, most documents written in
Urdu
.
[
clarification needed
]
In Unicode
[
edit
]
Nastaliq is not separately encoded in
Unicode
as it is a particular style of Arabic script and not a writing system in its own right. Nastaliq letterforms are produced by choosing a Nastaliq
font
to display the text.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Akram, Qurat ul Ain; Hussain, Sarmad; Niazi, Aneeta; Anjum, Umair; Irfan, Faheem (April 2014).
"Adapting Tesseract for Complex Scripts: An Example for Urdu Nastalique"
.
2014 11th IAPR International Workshop on Document Analysis Systems
. 11th IAPR International Workshop on Document Analysis Systems. Tours, France: IEEE. pp. 191?195.
doi
:
10.1109/DAS.2014.45
.
ISBN
978-1-4799-3243-6
.
- ^
"Nastaliq"
.
Lexico Dictionaries
.
Oxford University Press
. Archived from
the original
on March 28, 2022
. Retrieved
2020-07-05
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi (December 15, 1990).
"Calligraphy"
.
Encyclopædia Iranica
.
- ^
Atif Gulzar; Shafiq ur Rahman (2007).
"Nastaleeq: A challenge accepted by Omega"
(PDF)
.
TUGboat
.
29
: 1?6.
- ^
Ali Alparslan
.
"K?h?a?? ii. In Persia"
.
Encyclopaedia of Islam
.
doi
:
10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0502
.
- ^
a
b
c
Hamid Reza Afsari (17 June 2021).
"Calligraphy"
.
Encyclopaedia Islamica
.
- ^
a
b
Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi
.
"CALLIGRAPHY (continued)"
.
Encyclopædia Iranica
.
- ^
a
b
Ali Alparslan
.
"NESTA'L?K"
.
?slam Ansiklopedisi
.
- ^
Spooner, Brian; Hanaway, William L. (1995).
Reading Nasta'liq: Persian and Urdu Hands from 1500 to the Present
. p. 3.
ISBN
978-1568592138
.
- ^
Priscilla Soucek
.
"?ABD-AL-MAJ?D ??LAQ?N?"
.
Encyclopædia Iranica
.
- ^
Maryam Ekhtiar.
"?OL?M-RE?? ?O?NEVIS"
.
Encyclopædia Iranica
.
- ^
Maryam Ekhtiar.
"GOLEST?NA, ?ALI-AKBAR"
.
Encyclopædia Iranica
.
- ^
Khurshiq, Iqbal (17 November 2013).
"????? ??? ????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??: ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ?????"
. Express
. Retrieved
24 November
2013
.
- ^
How to bring a language to the future
, 9 Feb 2021
- ^
"The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 9: Nastaleeq vs. Nastaliq? Either way, Windows 8 has got it!"
. MSDN Blogs
. Retrieved
2013-03-24
.
- ^
"Google Noto Fonts"
.
- ^
"Apple finally enables Nastaleeq typeface for Urdu keyboard in iOS 11"
. 23 September 2017.
- ^
"What is Special About Awami Nastaliq? - Awami Nastaliq"
.
software.sil.org
. 17 July 2017.
- ^
Riaz, fahmida (21 November 2013).
"Amar Nastaleeq Font for Urdu Web Publishing"
.
Twitter.com
.
- ^
FWP.
"Urdu: some thoughts about the script and grammar, and other general notes for students assembled from years of classroom notes by FWP"
.
www.columbia.edu
. Retrieved
28 February
2020
.
- ^
"The chart below gives the different positional variants of some of the significantly different letters. (scanned document)"
.
Linked by www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/urduscript/section00.html#00_01
. Retrieved
28 February
2020
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Nastaliq
.
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