#Nasta'liq

[1five1two]

An Ottoman Drawing of a Peri, attributable to Veli Can, Turkey, 16th century. Gouache heightened with gold on paper, depicting a seated peri before a bowl of fruit, with large feathery wings and leafy hat, inscribed 'perizad' above, bordered in gold, outer margins filled with large leafy outlines in gold, reverse with a text box with 8 lines of flowing nasta'liq script in black ink, sprinkled with gold.

[khwxbeeda]

sirius | they/them (non-binary)| 19 | intp | aquarius | slytherin | indian (marathi) | "im bi actually" | main: @siriusblack-the-third

.

a little about me~

Welcome to my side blog! I'm Sirius— a BA Philosophy student, bookworm and book dragon, science nerd, tharki and all round idiot. My native tongue is Marathi, and I can speak Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, English and French. I'm a Fashion Girlie™ (gn) and obsessed with aesthetics and all forms of art.

I'm currently learning classical dance and teaching myself to read nasta'liq (people who can speak Urdu but can't read it raise your hand lol). I'm a feminist and proudly an LGBTQIA+ person.

.

Fandoms I'm part of~

BTS | Red White and Royal Blue | A Good Girl's Guide | Harry Potter | Bollywood music | Hozier | Fourth Wing | Percy Jackson | Billie Eilish | AC/DC | Agatha Christie | Sherlock Holmes (books) | BBC Sherlock | The Shiva Trilogy by Amish

.

DNI if you are~

Queerphobe, transphobe, bot, supporter of Joanne K Rowling, racist, anti-feminist, or any other type of narrow-minded nonsense. DO NOT DM ME UNLESS YOU ARE A MUTUAL BECAUSE I WILL NOT REPLY.

.

Tags~

if you want to read my fics/prose/poems: #amrut-writes for the old ones and #sirius-writes for the new

[printandmatter]

Session 5: Abeera Kamran & Pattern Making with Stamps

Written by Hannan Almasyabi

This week's session began with a fantastic talk from guest speaker Abeera Kamran, which was especially interesting for me, as I found it reminded me of that ever-old debate of 'art vs STEM subjects' and 'left side of the brain vs right side of the brain', where it's suggested that instead of both coexisting, it must be a choice between one or the other. Abeera's talk was a clear demonstration that there is no conflict between creative expression and practical need as she took us on a journey through Urdu's deep ties to identity, history, the practical hurdles and all-round accessibility.

As someone from a non-South Asian background it was a fascinating glimpse into a language I knew next to nothing about and provided me with a deeper appreciation and some small understanding of the language and it's beauty.

To give a bit of context to the speaker, Abeera Kamran is a graphic designer and front-end web developer based between Birmingham, UK and Karachi, Pakistan. Her work encompasses web design and development, typography, publication design and more. During her talk, she highlighted a range of different projects she'd worked on including several that featured the Urdu language, outlining why the way that Urdu was presented in each print and web project was very particular to ensuring that key information was conveyed appropriately to an Urdu speaking audience. Abeera recently completed an MA Research in Typography course at the University of Reading, her research looked at the challenges surrounding digitizing the Urdu language including the historical, cultural, design and technological complexities surrounding the typographic representation of the popular Lahori Nasta'liq in web browsers.

In the image above, Abeera demonstrates to us how letters in the Nasta'liq script not only start higher up at the beginning of the word and move down, but words overlap, making the move from traditional, handwritten content to digital much more difficult. Because of this, Abeera shared with us that "Urdu newsletters were still handwritten until as late as 1981 whereas mechanised printing was already in use in East Asia as early as 800AD and in Europe as early as the 15th Century." You can find more about Abeera Kamran and her work here.

The Art Workshop

This week's creative session built upon the previous session where we used erasers from your everyday stationers to create alphabet stamps, however this session we focused on making patterns. This was a nice reminder that art can be created with basic and affordable everyday materials, challenging the misconception that art is an expensive hobby. Many of us opted for designs that could easily be used to make repeat patterns, we went on to experiment with different ways of tiling the same stamp. It was fascinating to see the diversity of patterns we came up with, there were floral patterns, abstract patterns, designs featuring simpler line work all the way to intricate designs inspired by Portuguese tiles.

In my own work, I also experimented with the type of ink used to stamp with, as this gave an entirely different effect. I used the traditional stamp pad but also tested out printing with Indian ink, as the Indian ink is much darker and thicker in texture it provided a very similar style to a Lino-print which I preferred to the stamp pad effect.

Here's what my repeat pattern looked like in a 2x2 grid which I was pleased with! You can see how it differs to the stamp pad print. Below are a couple of examples of fantastic designs that were made. You can see how the same stamp changes based on how they are tiled, creating entirely different designs. Some of us even made repeat patterns combining two different stamp designs into a single print to create something entirely new. I loved seeing everyone's creative expression and ways they thought outside the box!

Follow-up from last session

In addition to the art workshop we ran, we also printed 'Ladypool Road: Impressions', a booklet about our impressions of a local road/high street we visited in a previous session. During the walk, we all did some visual research using illustration, photography and writing to document our walk. Everyone went away and worked on their pieces separately, so it was great to see some similar themes emerging in the way art pieces were interwoven in the booklet whilst simultaneously seeing the different individual perspectives everyone had even through we were all looking at the same street.

We used the Risograph to print this and went with a two-colour print of black and green which worked well.

I love the final result and the mix of patterns from this session's rubber stamps which made for good segment dividers between different themes running across the pages. It was also interesting to see how some attendees prioritised text whilst other's focussed on imagery, some producing very literal observations and others more abstract or personal reflections. I think one of the more difficult things to do in art is collate several different art styles and pieces into one cohesive flowing document which we achieved here!

Looking forward to seeing what we do in the next session and what new techniques we explore and lessons we learn from our guest speaker.

[ourworld111]

Page of calligraphy in nasta'liq script by the 16th century master calligrapher Mir Ali Heravi

[pugachevrolet]

A painting from the Impey Album, by the artist Bhawani Das: A Great Indian Fruit Bat, or Flying Fox (Pteropus giganteus). Calcutta, circa 1778-82. Pen and ink, watercolour with gum arabic, heightened with bodycolour, on watermarked paper, inscribed at lower left In the Collection of Lady Impey at Calcutta/Painted by [in Persian in nasta'liq script, Bhawani Das] Native of Patna, numbered 163 at upper right, framed. 457 x 687 mm. From Bonhams.

[marttlier]

"The Conference of the Birds"

Illustrated by Mohammad Barrangi

2022

This book is one of the artworks that has greatly influenced me. This book has inspired me through its poetic and nostalgic illustrations, which seamlessly blend traditional Persian calligraphy and collage printing. Given that my artistic focus revolves around feminism, I also appreciate the shared theme of using women's portrayal as birds in the illustrations.

"The Conference of the Birds" is a literary work written in the 12th century by the poet and mystic, Attar. It tells the story of how the birds of the world come together on a quest to find a mythical king known as "The Simorgh."

In his illustrations, Mohammad Barrangi incorporates various Eastern elements and elements drawn from his memories, personal history, and the city of his origin. Notably, women take center stage as the primary characters in his artwork, and he utilizes collage printing and Persian Nasta'liq calligraphy to bring his creative vision to life.

The fusion of these elements in Barrangi's work enriches the interpretation of Attar's timeless narrative, creating a unique and captivating visual experience.

[whencyclopedia]

Nasta 'liq

Nasta 'liq is one of the styles of Islamic calligraphy that was developed on Persian grounds by Persian calligraphers. The art of calligraphy has always held a prominent position in Persia, and its usage extends beyond the limits of the pages of books and documents to other fields of art such as architecture, pottery, metalwork, etc.

Continue reading...

[allthingslinguistic]

If you were to walk down a street in New York City, you might encounter hundreds of fonts on a single block: everything from street signs to shop names take on distinct personalities. Urdu and its nastaʿlīq typeface, lagging in the digital space, are much more difficult to iterate on with existing technology. Where there are hundreds of thousands of Latin digital fonts — fonts so iconic that we know them by name, like Helvetica or Times New Roman — digital Urdu fonts are limited to a handful at most. The nastaʿlīq typography that you might see on the streets of Pakistan is most likely to be hand painted.

“We went on Google and typed “what are fonts, how do we develop them,” Zeeshan recalled. “We purchased software but sat on it for a long time because we didn’t know how to use it.” Produced in collaboration with a government technology board over the course of a decade, Mehr Nastaliq uses 500 characters, all handwritten by Nasrullah — a tiny fraction of the 20,000 glyphs Jamil so painstakingly wrote in the 1980s. The Mehrs are particularly proud of how light their font is: at 60 KB, it doesn’t slow down websites and renders quickly. You can elongate letters and add diacritics.

Their experience of developing Mehr Nastaliq drove home an important lesson: the need for close collaboration between the calligrapher and developer. “It is imperative that the calligrapher and developer understand each other,” emphasised Zeeshan. “Abbu understands programming too now, so he can offer a different solution when confronted with tech limitations.” Working with his parent comes with its own challenges, of course. “Sometimes, Zeeshan would say, This letter isn’t looking nice,” Nasrullah said with a chuckle. “And I’d get huffy and say, Are you the calligrapher?”

Unicode, developed in the early 1990s, is now a global standard for representing characters across language systems in computing code, which means if you write Urdu — in naskh or nastaʿlīq — on one computer, it won’t appear as a string of garbled symbols in another. But technological advances don’t automatically bode well for the digitization of non-Latin type languages. Nemeth notes that the proliferation of easy-to-use design software doesn’t eliminate the need for script-specific expertise. “Designers who are not willing or able to invest the years of learning and research necessary to master a foreign script,” he says, “are led to believe that their tools and some superficial ‘borrowing’ of design elements are sufficient for successful design.”

Read the whole article. 

[molkolsdal]

Spiritual Couplets (Masnavi) by Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi

Kashmir, 24th December 1827

The sweet lyrics of Rumi are among the gems of world literature, and his Masnavi is one of the most well-known works of Islamic Sufism. This copy's small nasta'liq script, arranged in ornate horizontal and vertical verses and ornamented with vibrant blue and gold, was written by the scribe Ahmadallah, also called Hakim Masih al-Zaman, who was also the author of a medical treatise (Khulasat al-tibb).

[whencyclopedfr]

Nastaliq

Le nastaliq (parfois orthographié nasta'liq) est l'un des styles de calligraphie islamique qui fut développé sur des bases persanes par des calligraphes persans. L'art de la calligraphie a toujours occupé une place prépondérante en Perse et son usage dépasse les limites des pages de livres et de documents pour s'étendre à d'autres domaines artistiques tels que l'architecture, la poterie, le travail du métal, etc.

Lire la suite...

[thatshowthingstarted]

Safavid brass Astrolabe, Tabriz, Iran, 1705-06 AD.

5¾ in (14.6 cm) high overall; 3⅜ in (8.5 cm)

Christie’s

[whencyclopedes]

Nasta 'liq

El nasta 'liq es uno de los estilos de caligrafía islámica desarrollado en Persia por calígrafos persas. El arte de la caligrafía siempre ha ocupado un lugar destacado en Persia, y su uso se extiende más allá de los límites de las páginas de los libros y documentos a otros campos del arte como la arquitectura, la cerámica, la metalistería, etc.

Leer más...

[lunasdemayo]

Woman with a Spray of Flowers - Unknown Artist (ca. 1575)

On this detached album folio created in 16th-century Iran we see a beautiful woman with a spray of flowers. The painting is set in gold, green, and blue rulings on a paper with floral motifs, marginal cartouches with two couplets in white nasta'liq script, and two marginal medallions with kneeling youths.

The verses in the border of this painting seem integral to the composition. They imply the yearning of the lover, represented by the two kneeling youths in the upper and lower corners of the folio, for the beloved.

“How long are you going to wound me with grief? Keep me wondering in the lane of separation? If in the end you will raise me from dust, Why do you cast me away like an arrow?”

(source: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/)

[heaveninawildflower]

Page from a manuscript in Nasta'liq with an illuminated border (1501-1600).

 Ink, opaque watercolour, and gold on paper.

Image and text information courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago.                                                                                                       

[harvardfineartslib]

Manuscript Monday!

Image description: Blue and gold floral motif against pale gold background. The central shape contains calligraphy. Ibrahim Sultan's Shahnama (Bodleian, Ouseley Add. 176), Image f. 12a: Shamsa Alternate transliteration Title: Shahnameh Translation Title: Book of Kings Firdawsi, b. 940-941/329-330 AH; d. 1020-1021/411 AH, Iranian [author] ca. 1430-1435 Place of production: Shiraz, Iran 468 folios, nasta'liq, gilt binding: Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper 11 1/4 x 7 7/8 in Persian Islamic Style / Period: Timurid Repository: Bodleian Library, Oxford (Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom) HOLLIS Number: 8001003129

[sacred-illumination]

Title: Album Leaf of Shekasteh-ye Nasta'liq

Calligrapher: attributed to Mirza Kuchak (Iranian, Isfahan, died 1846)

Date: first half 19th century

Geography: Made in Iran

Medium: Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper