خوش نویسی (khoshnevisi)
Last cultural post of the semester! If you have by chance read my Monthly Language Learning Journals, specifically the August post, you may skip this section as I will just be providing some brief context on PLO. For my Farsi studies, I am -- at the time this artifact is being posted -- using the website Persian Language Online to study (abbreviated as PLO from here on out. While reading PLO lesson 42 (in the "Intermediate" level), I came across a new term, خوش نویسی (kkoshnevisi). My language partner explained this as an ancient art form, the best translation being Persian calligraphy. I tried to find a rather short video (posted below), though feel free to play it at two times speed or skip around.
Etymology. خوش نویسی (khoshnevisi) stands for the actual art form of calligraphy, while خوش نویس (khoshnevis) -- without the suffix -ی (-i) -- is a calligrapher or the actual artist who is painting/writing the calligraphy. خوش نویس (khoshnevis) comes from خط نوشتن (khat neveshtan) meaning 'to write a script,' where خط (khat) literally means 'line,' and نوشتن (neveshtan) means 'to write.'
History. Much of the modern-day Iranian/Persian script is due to the 7th-century Arab Conquest of Persian (also called the Islamic Conquest of Persian). The major players were the Sasanian Empire ('the Persians') and the Rashidun Caliphate ('the Arabs'). Due to a laundry list of prior events that weakened the Sasanian Empire -- namely a civil war, the Rashidun Caliphate was able to annex the Sasanian Empire, leading to its eventual downfall.
In brief, this conquest changed many things about ancient Iranian culture, including but not limited to the -- rather forced -- transition from Zoroastrianism to Islam, increasing Arabic influence on legal code and culture, and (most importantly for this post) a change of script. The change of script was mainly due to the introduction of Islam, as with it came the Arabic alphabet. Over time, Persians adopted the alphabet and morphed it into their own, which is now known as the Persian alphabet or Perso-Arabic script.
Nasta'liq. Around three hundred years later, Abū ibn Muqla Bayzavi Shirāzi would develop six different styles of Persian calligraphy, "Mohaqiq", "Reyhan", "Sols", "Naskh", "Toqi" and "Reqa." Historically, these are also known as the "six pens." of Nasta'liq, the most predominant style today, originates from another artist combining the styles "Naksh" and "Reqah." Khoshnevisi is the name for Persian calligraphy in general.
Technique. Though I ventured a little bit into the different styles, there are many more that I neglected to mention. For brevity's sake, I will be focusing on Nasta'liq. Pens are generally made of reed, with an end cut to an edge. See the image to the right. The material is somewhat softer than a traditionally Western metal calligraphy pen, but unlike many metal tips, the width is not so much determined by the weight or pressure put on the pen when writing. Nasta'liq involves rotating the pen at various angles to achieve different thicknesses in strokes. These angle changes must be fluid, or else the appearance becomes choppy and does not look like one single fluid stroke.
References
González E S, "The Art of Writing Beautifully," Getty. 26 May 2022. https://www.getty.edu/news/the-art-of-writing-beautifully-persian-calligraphy/
"Persian calligraphy wins UNESCO protected status," Tehran Times. 17 December 2021. https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/468158/Persian-calligraphy-wins-UNESCO-protected-status
Yūsofī Ḡ-H, "CALLIGRAPHY (continued)," ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA. 1 January 2000. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/calligraphy-2
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