Elucidating the Proportional Relations of Letters in Nastaliq Style

For the past 600 years, Nastaliq style has been popular in Iran and in a small-scale, in some other countries. During this time, it has been continuously evolving and its numerous manifestation have appeared in different forms including Ketabat, Chlipa, Siahmashgh, Ghateh Nevisi, etc. This style, along with literature and other Iranian arts such as painting, has developed a special structure and geometrical system that has led to the development of endless varieties of composition in words, lines, and pages. It has also become so solid, consistent, and appealing that in spite of the existence of various written mediums and presentation of different styles, while preserving its original status, it is still popular and is used. Despite the efforts made by great Iranian calligraphers, and the numerous volumes of treaties written on calligraphy as well as the research studies conducted in this area, still the lack of recognition of the proportion of letters in Nastaliq is felt. In the contemporary occasional studies, only the golden ratio has been mentioned as the proportional ratio of this style while considering the variety of letters’ form and the possibility of creating various compositions, it seems that several different geometrical dispositions and proportional ratios should have been used in this style. Elucidation of these proportional ratios in the letters of Nastaliq style is the most important issue investigated in the present paper. The paper aims to identify the proportional ratios of Nastaliq style so as to better appreciate the quality and merits of this art and pave the way for organizing discussions on the issue, analyse the style and facilitate its methodical teaching. These are some of the shortages of calligraphy in Iran today and its urgency is felt. For instance, Nastaliq orthography books do not teach the art methodically. In these books, Nastaliq and anything related to it seem to be proven methods and most of the students mimic them without any contemplation or reflection. So, many art students achieve their goals on the path late because they are not taught methodologically or some who have achieved it, they stop right there. Therefore, creative endeavours are scarcely seen in this art. Consequently, conducting this research is both important and essential due to the fact that being aware of the geometrical system of Nastaliq style: 1) can contribute to the methodological teaching of Nastaliq calligraphy and shorten the long period of learning the art; 2) due to the fact that Nastaliq style has replaced the common Naskh style in the elementary students' textbooks in recent years, it can help better teach the style to these students; 3) it can serve as a basis for systematic and methodological design of fonts and its teaching at schools and universities because lacking proper information on the basics and geometry of Persian calligraphy styles has resulted in using the basics of Latin letters’ style in designing Persian fonts; 4) it can make this style harmonious with the geometrical structures of image displays and thus, play an effective role in new mediums of transferring written texts; 5) through understanding the geometrical system of calligraphy including Nastaliq style, facilitate reading of the calligraphic and printed texts in an electronic software; and 6) via understanding the geometrical system of Nastaliq, provide opportunities to recognize original and copies of calligraphy works. Considering the problems arising from non-identification of proportional ratios of Nastaliq style in various applications, this study might be considered applied research in applications. Furthermore, the study is qualitative in terms of research data and since many factors are involved in forming such proportions, the research can be considered analytic. The research data have been obtained through reviewing printed and electronic sources as well as manuscripts. The sample letters studied have been selected and extracted from Hamd Surah of Quran written in calligraphy by Mir Emad, which is considered his masterpiece. Hence, sampling has been made purposefully because Mir Emad is an unparalleled master of Nastaliq calligraphy and it seems that the letters written by him in the form of calligraphy possess exquisite beauty and symmetry.   Review of previous and contemporary works on elucidating proportional ratios in Nastaliq style shows that there have been two types of studies have been conducted on proportions in Nastaliq style. In the volumes of treaties written on calligraphy, ‘point’ and ‘Alif’ letter are considered as the base of Nastaliq proportions, but nowadays, the emphasis is more on golden ratio. This is an indication of the obvious difference in elucidating proportions of this style in the different eras. It also shows a historical break-up in determining the base of proportions in the art of Nastaliq calligraphy in a way that currently, this original Iranian art is studied through western criteria for art. In this paper, the researcher refers to the basics of proportions of Nastaliq referred to in the volumes of treaties written on calligraphy and uses ‘point’ and ‘Alif’ letter as the foundation of analysis. The researcher also presents proportions used in the geometry of all Iranian arts including calligraphy. In circles, √2 proportion has been observed due to its compactness while most of the lower case (small) letters and other numerous proportions such as √6, √9, etc. have been used in Keshide cases. Due to the variety and complexity of letters’ forms, the possibility of creating too many compositions and association with different geometrical proportions, Nastaliq cannot be limited to a specific system. The advantage of this style is that several proportional ratios can be used in the letters of this style simultaneously. Moreover, the use of various geometrical systems has added to the scope of creativity and attraction of this style.