 | This articleshould specify the language of its non-English content using{{lang}} or{{langx}},{{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and{{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriateISO 639 code. Wikipedia'smultilingual support templates may also be used.See why.(August 2025) |
| Nastaliq نَسْتَعْلِیق | |
|---|---|
 "Welcome to Wikipedia" from thePersian Wikipedia | |
| Script type | |
Period | 14th century AD – present |
| Direction | Right-to-left[1] |
| Region | Commonly used inIran,Pakistan,Afghanistan,India andXinjiang Historically used inIraq,Turkey,Uzbekistan,Bangladesh,Turkmenistan andTajikistan |
| Languages | Classical Persian Urdu Kashmiri Punjabi Turkic languages |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Aran(161), Arabic (Nastaliq variant) |
| Part ofa series on |
| Calligraphy |
|---|
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) |
Nastaliq[a] is one of the maincalligraphic hands used to writeArabic script and is used for significantIndo-Iranian languages (namely all of theIranic and some of theIndo-Aryan), predominantlyPersian,Kurdish,Pashto,Balochi,Urdu,Sindhi,Saraiki,Kashmiri andPunjabi. It is often used also forOttoman Turkish, but rarely forArabic (particularly inIraq).Nastaliq developed inIran from the combination ofnaskh andta'liq, beginning in the 13th century[3][4] and remains widely used inIran,India,Pakistan,Afghanistan and other countries for written poetry and as a form of art.[5]
._Reverse.jpg)
The nameNastaliq "is a contraction of the Persiannaskh-e ta'liq (Persian:نَسْخِ تَعلیق), meaning a hanging or suspendednaskh."[6] Virtually allSafavid authors (likeDust Muhammad orQadi Ahmad) attributed the invention ofnastaliq toMir 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 ofNastaliq in 14th-century Iran and showed how it developed gradually among scribes inShiraz. According to her studies,nastaliq has its origin fromnaskh alone, and not by combiningnaskh andtaliq, as was commonly thought. In addition to study of the practice of calligraphy, Elaine Wright also found a document written byJafar Tabrizic. 1430, according to whom:
It must be known thatnastaʿliq is derived fromnaskh. Some Shirazi [scribes] modified it [naskh] by taking out the flattened [letter]kaf and straight bottom part of [the letters]sin,lam andnun. From other scripts they then brought in a curvedsin and stretched forms and introduced variations in the thickness of the line. So a new script was created, to be namednastaʿliq. After a whileTabrizi [scribes] modified what Shirazi [scribes] had created by gradually rendering it thinner and defining its canons, until the time when Khwaja Mir ʿAli Tabrizi brought this script to perfection.[7]
Thus, "our earliest written source also credits Shirazi scribes with the development ofnastaʿliq and Mir ʿAli Tabrizi with its canonization."[7] Wright's proposed origin ofnastaliq was complicated by studies of Francis Richard, who argued on the basis of some manuscripts from Tabriz that its early evolution was not confined to Shiraz.[7] Finally, many authors point out that development ofnastaʿliq was a process which occurred over several centuries. For example, Gholam-Hosayn Yusofi, Ali Alparslan andSheila Blair recognize a gradual shift towardsnastaʿliq in some 13th-century manuscripts.[4][8][9] Hamid Reza Afsari traces the first elements of the style to 5th/11th-century copies of Persian translations of the Qur'an, and Rawāqī argues that the referenced translations may be even older.[10]
Persian differs from Arabic in its proportion of straight and curved letters. It also lacks the definite articleal-, whose uprightalif andlam are responsible for Arabic writing's distinct verticality and rhythm. Hanging scripts liketaliq andnastaliq were suitable for writing Persian –whentaliq was used for court documents,nastaliq was developed for Persian poetry, "whosehemistiches encourage the pile-up of letters against the intercolumnar ruling. Only later was it adopted for prose."[11]
The first master ofnastaliq was the aforementionedMir Ali Tabrizi, who passed his style to his son ʿUbaydallah. A student of ʿUbaydallah,Jafar Tabrizi (d. 1431) (see quote above), moved toHerat, when he became the head of thescriptorium (kitabkhana) of princeBaysunghur (therefore his epithet Baysunghuri). Jafar trained several students innastaliq, of whom the most famous wasAzhar Tabrizi (d. 1475). Its classical formnastaliq achieved[incomprehensible] underSultan Ali Mashhadi (d. 1520), a student of Azhar (or perhaps one of Azhar's students) who worked forSultan Husayn Bayqara (1469–1506) and his vizierAli-Shir Nava'i.[12]
Simultaneously, a different style ofnastaliq developed in western and southern Iran. This style was associated with ʿAbd al-Rahman Khwarazmi, the calligrapher of thePir BudaqQara Qoyunlu (1456–1466), and then with his children, ʿAbd al-Karim Khwarazmi andʿAbd al-Rahim Anisi (both active at the court ofYa'qub BegAq Qoyunlu; 1478–1490). This more angular western Iranian style was largely dominant at the beginning of theSafavid era, but then lost to the style canonized by Sultan Ali Mashhadi; however, it continued to be used in the Indian subcontinent.[10][13]
The most famous calligrapher of the next generation in eastern lands wasMir Ali Heravi (d. 1544), who was especially renowned for his calligraphic specimens (qitʿa). The eastern style ofnastaliq became the predominant style in western Iran, as artists gravitated to work in the 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 ofnastaliq as a script used for the copy of the Qur'an.[14] Its apogeumnastaliq achieved[incomprehensible] in writings ofMir Emad Hassani (d. 1615), "whose style was the model in the following centuries."[10] Mir Emad's successors in the 17th and 18th centuries developed a more elongated style ofnastaliq, 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 centurynastaliq was also adopted in Iran for lithographed books.[15] In the 20th century, "the use ofnastaliq declined. After World War II, however, interest in calligraphy and above all innastaliq revived, and some outstandingly able masters of the art have since then emerged."[4]
The use ofnastaliq early expanded beyond Iran at a very early date.Timurids brought it to theIndian subcontinent, andnastaliq became the favorite script of the Persian court of theMughals. Notable masters ofnastaliq such asMuhammad Husayn Kashmiri (d. 1611/1612) andAbd al-Rahim Anbarin-Qalam worked forAkbar (1556–1605) andJahangir (1605–1627). Another important practitioner of the script wasAbd al-Rashid Daylami (d. 1671), nephew and student of Mir Emad, who became court calligrapher ofShah Jahan (1628–1658) after arriving in India. During this era,nastaliq became the common script for writing theHindustani language, especiallyStandard Urdu.[16][17]
Nastaliq was also adopted in theOttoman Empire, which has always had strong cultural ties to Iran. Here it was known astaliq (Turkishtalik), not to be confused with the Persiantaliq script. The first Iranian calligraphers who broughtnastaliq to Ottoman lands, includingAsadullah Kirmani (d. 1488), belonged to the western tradition. However, at a relatively early stage, Ottoman calligraphers adopted the eastern style ofnastaliq. In the 17th century, a student of Mir Emad,Darvish Abdi Bokharai (d. 1647), transplanted his style to Istanbul. The greatest master ofnastaliq in 18th century wasMehmed Yasari (d. 1798), who closely followed Mir Emad. This tradition was further developed by Yasari's sonMustafa Izzet (d. 1849), who founded a distinct Ottoman school ofnastaliq. He introduced new and precise proportions of the script that differed from the Iranian tradition. The most important member of this school in the second half of the 19th century wasSami Efendi (d. 1912), who taught many famous practitioners ofnastaliq, includingMehmed Nazif Bey (d. 1913),Mehmed Hulusi Yazgan (d. 1940) andNecmeddin Okyay (d. 1976). The specialty of the Ottoman school wascelî nastaliq, used in inscriptions and mosque plates.[18][16][19]
%3b_verso_-_text_and_illuminated_heading_(sarlawh)_(F1931.37).jpg)
.jpg)
_MET_DP159398.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Shekasteh orShekasteh Nastaliq (Persian:شکسته نستعلیق,شکسته نستعلیق, "cursiveNastaliq" or literally "brokenNastaliq") style is a "streamlined" form ofNastaliq.[20] 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."[4] Theshekasteh nastaliq emerged in the early 17th century and differed from propernastaliq 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 writeshekasteh faster than any other script."[21] Manuscripts from this early period show signs of the influence ofshekasteh taliq; while having the appearance of a shrunken form of nastaliq, they also contain features oftaliq "due to their being written by scribes who had been trained in taʿlīq."[4]Shekasteh nastaliq (usually shortened to simplyskehasteh), being more easily legible thantaliq gradually replaced the latter as the script of decrees and documents. Later, it also came into use for writing prose and poetry.[4][21]
The first important calligraphers ofshekasteh wereMohammad Shafiʿ Heravi (d. 1670–71) (he was known as Shafiʿa and henceshekasteh was sometimes calledshafiʿa orshifiʿa) andMortazaqoli Khan Shamlu (d. 1688–89). Both of them produced works of real artistic quality, which does not change the fact that in this early phaseshekasteh still lacked consistency (it is especially visible in writing of Mortazaqoli Khan Shamlu). Most modern scholars consider thatshekasteh reached its peak of artistic perfection underAbdol Majid Taleqani (d. 1771), "who gave the script its distinctive and definite form."[4] The tradition of Taleqani was later followed byMirza Kuchek Esfahani (d. 1813),[22][23]Gholam Reza Esfahani (d. 1886–87)[24] andAli Akbar Golestaneh (d. 1901).[25]
The added frills madeshekasteh increasingly difficult to read and it remained the script of documents and decrees, "whilenastaʿliq retained its pre-eminence as the main calligraphic style." The need for simplification ofshekasteh resulted in development of secretarial style (shekasteh-ye tahriri) by writers likeAdib-al-Mamalek Farahani (d. 1917) andNezam Garrusi (d. 1900). The secretarial style is a simplified form ofshekasteh 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][26]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]
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
ModernNastaliq typography began with the invention ofNoori Nastaliq which was first created as a digital font in 1981 through the collaboration ofAhmed Mirza Jamil (as calligrapher) andMonotype 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'sDaily Jang to use digital typesetting instead of a group of calligraphers. It suffered from two problems in the 1990s: its non-availability on standard platforms such asMicrosoft Windows orMac OS, and the non-WYSIWYG nature of text entry, whereby the document had to be created by commands in Monotype's proprietarypage description language.
In 1994,InPage Urdu, which is a functional page layout software for Windows akin toQuarkXPress, was developed for Pakistan's newspaper industry by an Indian software company Concept Software Pvt Ltd. It offered theNoori 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 theFaiz Lahori Nastaliq font with Kasheeda has been added to it along with compatibility with OpenType Unicode fonts.
TheNastaliq style uses more than three general forms for many letters,[34][35] even in non-decorative documents. For example, most documents written inUrdu.[clarification needed]
Nastaliq is not separately encoded inUnicode 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 Nastaliqfont to display the text.
| Styles |
|  | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objects | ||||||||||
| Calligraphers | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Organizations | ||||||||||
| Influences | ||||||||||
Part ofIslamic arts | ||||||||||
Arabic language | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overviews | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scripts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Varieties |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Academic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Linguistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calligraphy ·Script | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
