Abstract
Iranian-Islamic art of calligraphy was created in the early centuries after the advent of Islam in Iran and gradually merged with other arts and industries, and gradually spread to other parts of the Islamic world. In order to establish communication with the audience through non-verbal signs, prominent masters of the Iranian style of calligraphy tried very hard and, by taking advantage of their inherent ability and practicing this art, they attracted people to this art. The aim of this research is to throw light on some aspects of the ‘Iranian Art of Calligraphy’.
Introduction
As the noblest of visual arts, calligraphy has long been of interest to creative Iranians. With its visual power and the profound impact on the human soul and body, this has played an undeniable role in shaping other Iranian-Islamic arts. It has continually attracted artists from other disciplines to benefit from this divine gift, which has been passed down through the skilled hands of such masters as Ibn Muqalla, Abul Hasan Ali Ibn Hilal, Mirza Jafar Baysunquri, Mir Emad Hassani, Mir Ali Heravi, Mirza Gholam Reza Esfahani, and Mirza Kalhor, etc., whose art and craftsmanship reflect the radiance of divine beauty. With its strong structure and unique coherence in the arrangement of letters and words, Iranian calligraphy grants artists the freedom to wield this art effectively in conveying their message. As a result, all visual arts – including graphic design – have greatly benefited from this distinctive quality of calligraphy. It is perhaps through this very process that arts such as calligraphic painting and graphic calligraphy emerged, enabling Iranian artists to transmit the Hadith of the soul – through a masterful fusion of line and visual symbolism – to both the mystic and the layman alike.
The Evolution of Calligraphy in Iran
The 9th century AH should be considered as the golden age of Iranian calligraphy, when, along with other arts such as painting, illumination, and manuscript design, this art, too, began to experience evolution. During this period, calligraphy transcended mere artistry and became a messenger of peace, an indicator of the level of culture, and a representative of Iranian identity.
When Amir Ali-Shir Navai transcribed Jami’s Divan in the Nastaliq script and presented it to Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II as a gesture of friendship, the cultural significance of this Persian art was profoundly affirmed. In administrative contexts, official correspondence was rendered in calligraphic script, while such styles as ‘Qatieh Nevisi (writing a page in such a way that it expresses a specific issue) and ‘Chalipa’ (a panel in the Nastaliq script) marked distinct artistic merit. Through these applications, calligraphy became increasingly intertwined with other art forms, further elevating its stature.
Despite the widespread chaos and military upheavals during the Timurid era, Iranian art, especially calligraphy, not only endured but flourished. Due to its encompassing structure, prescribed rules, and systematic framework evolution of calligraphy is inherently challenging. However, this period witnessed remarkable creativity and innovation while preserving the art’s foundational principles. One of the reasons for the attractiveness of the art of calligraphy was the use of methods such as ‘Left-handed Script (lit. reverse or mirror writing script), ‘To’aman Script’ (a creative method in Iranian calligraphy in which a combination of words and letters form human or animal figures), ‘Shekasteh-Basteh (lit. broken line), and ‘Naqqashi-khat or calligram. The compatibility of these scripts with Iranian culture made this art be used to record Iranian thoughts, ideas, and literature, and to have an Iranian approach. In other words, calligraphy, during the Timurid era, went beyond Iranian culture and became a part of Iranian identity.
Nastaliq script embodies both manifest and subtle beauties, revealed to each observer according to their insight and knowledge. This calligraphy has a very special place among Iranians because it has the most beautiful and appropriate shape of Persian letters and words. In writing Nastaliq calligraphy, attention is paid to the arrangement of words to enhance expression and create a sense of peace and beauty in the viewer. In this script, the movement of letters is formed in vertical, horizontal, and circular shapes, each of which creates a diverse structural capability in composition and displays a variety of compositions and a new angle of visual expression of letters. Many calligraphers act visually and sensory to establish balance in a line or, in general, a combination of letters and words in the form of a calligraphic work. The beauty of shapes, elegance, good order, symmetry, good proximity, placement, and moderation in thickness and thinness are among the most important characteristics of Nastaliq calligraphy.
At the beginning of the emergence of Nastaliq calligraphy in Iran, two different styles of this calligraphy appeared in the Iranian territories: the Jafar and Azhar styles of Tabriz, which were later promoted by Sultan Ali Mashhadi. This style became widespread in Khorasan and also came to be called the Khorasani style or the Eastern Nastaliq. The style of Abd al-Rahman al-Khwarizmi, a calligrapher at the court of Sultan Yaqub Aq Qoyunlu, became popular in the western and southern parts of Iran, and was later popularized by his sons Abd al-Rahim and Abd al-Karim and their followers within a limited time and place. The differences in these two styles are that in the Western style, words and letters are written very sharply, and the lines are long yet smooth, and the circles are larger than usual, while being. However, in the Eastern or Khorasani style, the size of the words and letters was moderate.
This style is the one that has reached us in its current form after going through evolution for more than four centuries. The Western style, on the other hand, was, after a rather short while, rejected by scribes. With the abandonment of the Western style, the Eastern or Khorasani style continued to evolve after the initial stages, gradually and hand in hand with calligraphers. With the beginning of the Qajar rule, the Nastaliq script entered another stage of development and changes, especially in the second half of the 13th century.
With the advent of the printing industry and its role in spreading Nastaliq calligraphy, conditions were created to stimulate the creative and innovative genius of Mirza Mohammad Reza Kalhor (1829-1892 CE). Kalhor created a new style, and the current Nastaliq is the product of his initiative and thought. Kalhor followed the same method as Mir Emad, but added his own taste and creativity to it. Today, experts in Nastaliq calligraphy mainly believe in two distinct styles, namely the “Old or Mir Emad style” and the “New or Kalhor style”.
Characteristics of the Old (Pre-Qajar) or Emad Style
Choosing a specialized pen, focusing on the style, elegance, smoothness, strength of hand, sharpness, rapidity, artistic expression in the form of calligraphy and Chalipa, valuing the independence and features of letters and words, and the use of words are among the most important characteristics of this style of calligraphy. In the Mir Emad style, the circles are wider and more extensive, and the hollow is in the form of an oval that is diagonal and is located in the last third of it. The modes and stretches are complete and long, up to eleven points of the pen and sometimes beyond it, while the end of the modes is seen to be lighter and thinner. The thinness of the letters is observed during the ascent and descent, and the lines and distances between the letters and words are greater.
Characteristics of the New (Post-Qajar) or Kalhor Style
Mirza Mohammad Reza Kalhor created a peaceful coexistence between the tradition of calligraphy and the needs of the day. Due to the choice of a small format for words in his style of calligraphy, Mirza Mohammad Reza Kalhor wrote the dots with fewer than six pen strokes, to the extent that it seemed that he had written the line with a larger pen and placed the dots with a smaller pen. Calligraphers following Mir-Emad’s style considered thin and sharp writing to be a necessary condition for beautiful scripts, but in the Kalhor method, the sharpness of the letters was adjusted by adding more strength to the thinner parts of the words.
Concluding Remarks
The trend of following new paths and experimentation in new fields began a long time ago in Iran, and now a wide range of artists’ efforts have attracted the attention of many art lovers. Depending on his/her perspective, background, and talent, every artist has chosen his/her own path and created a model that can be studied and examined independently. In the process of innovative creativity, artists have achieved such innovations in calligraphy that can be referred to as a series of breaking traditions. Perhaps it can be said that the most important breaking tradition occurred in the relationship between form and content. In the traditional world, calligraphy had the task of expressing the concept in the easiest, fastest, and most legible way, so that the form and content could be conveyed to the viewer and reader at first glance. The last decades of the twentieth century witnessed profound changes in the concept of art and the structure of beauty, and through this, a wide and diverse realm of new artistic tools and methods of expression was experienced. The use of letters in art has been one of the experiences existing in the modern era and has taken on new dimensions in the postmodern era; even though the use of the art of calligraphy in the history of Eastern and Western art has a long history.
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By: Ms. Tandis Taghavi, Ph.D. Student of Universiti Sains Malaysia
