Ibn Muqla Baydawi Shirazi

Ibn Muqla was born in 272 and died in 338. He was the minister of the Abbasid court and played a significant role in the lives of each and every one of us Iranians. It is interesting to know that after the Arab attack on Iran and the officialization of the Arabic script, the Persian speaking people did not show interest in Arabic handwriting and for this reason they avoided going to school and learning calligraphy. Ibn Muqla established rules for the development of lines. He paid attention to the cause and reason of people’s lack of interest in Arabic and Kufi script and based on Iranian aesthetics with changes, he created rules and lines.

In order to create the rules of new lines, Ibn Muqalla answered such questions:

For example, when is the Mohaghegh line beautiful and how is the Tholt line seen as beautiful based on Iranian aesthetics and people’s interests. He understood very well why the people of Iran do not like the Kufi script, for example. Because this line does not have a curve, so he standardized the lines.

Invented lines by Ibn Muqla

• Researcher
• Basil
• third
• Raqqa
• cancel
• Nastaliq
• signature

The orbit of these lines is on the circle and the surface of the entity.  The Kufi line is no more than five dongs and half a level and half a circle. By adding a circle, Ibn Muqla created the beautiful calligraphy of the researcher. And he made the Rayhan line subordinate to the Mohagheg line. He used more elongated letters in his creative lines (the letter “A” in these lines is more elongated than the Arabic lines). Ibn Muqalla made “A” the basic scale of letters. He also gave the letter “Y” a larger circle. The third line of four dongs is flat, two dongs are flat, three dongs are flat, three dongs are round. It is interesting to know that the Naskh script was invented in 310 AH during the ministry of Ibn Firat, and due to the ease of writing, it was copied by other lines and became known as the Naskh script, and it was used in Islamic lands since that time. These lines were accepted by Iranians and fifty years later scientists started using this line. He recounted the twelve principles: composition, seat, ratio, weakness, strength, level, distance, ascension, permissible, permissible descent, principles, purity and glory.

Ibn Muqla and court officials

Ibn Muqla was appointed to the position of a minister and official of the Abbasid government many times, but he was removed from his position due to the jealousy of those around him. He was tortured many times, and in one of these tortures, it was ordered that his right hand, the hand that wrote beautiful lines artistically, be cut off. But he did not give up his efforts and tied a pen to his arm and wrote beautifully. He tried little by little and was able to write with his left hand. And he was successful in this too. And he left artistic handwriting. Finally, they tortured him again and cut his tongue, but this time he died due to torture.

The works of Ibn Muqlah

A treatise on calligraphy and calligraphy, a treatise on the measurement of calligraphy, which is kept in the school of Attarin in Tunis, there are also several letters left by him.