A Handbook of Persian Calligraphy and Related Arts by Hamid Reza Ghelichkhani (review)

Abstract

This is a detailed encyclopedia of Persian terms and their English equivalents for the arts of the book—first and foremost calligraphy but also illumination, painting, and binding—as these arts developed historically and continue to be practiced today in Iran. Originally published in 1994 and revised in 2009, the manual is based on thirty Persian treatises dating from the twelfth to twentieth centuries and on a number of recent studies in English and French that treat the paleography of Arabic script and codicology of Islamicate manuscripts. In addition—and perhaps most notably—the Handbook draws on the considerable experience of both the author and editor as trained calligraphers and artists. Thus, it melds past and present traditions, making it a complementary resource for scholars and practitioners alike. Altogether the publication contains hundreds of individual entries arranged in Persian alphabetical order, so ا (alef) through ى (ya). Each lemma gives its Persian transcription and correct pronunciation in transliterated form. Next comes the English translation in bold, sometimes in multiple versions and preceded by abbreviations such as “sc.” for script, “to.” for tool, and “lit.” for literally. This preliminary data is then followed by the term’s definition or explanation in English, often in a few words or succinct sentences. For example, sajāvandī, under the letter س, is defined as “the placing of diacritical marks in a text. This is usually done with a different pen after the text itself has been written” (180). Many lemmas are much more extensive, with multiple bullet points, and constitute richly documented essays, as in the entry for nastà līq, under the letter ن. From the initial definition as the “predominant script in Iranian calligraphy,” the entry continues in considerable detail about the script’s history and development, with quotations from a number of the treatises that form the Handbook’s primary source material.