The literary pearls of Mirza Ghalib, the most famous Urdu poet of all time, have long enthralled audiences in ghazal evenings and mushaira sessions. Recently, his popular couplets have been beamed on late-night radio programmes. In the digital age, his poems are shared widely on Facebook pages dedicated to Urdu poetry. But the images that form the backdrop of his poetry are quite tacky. His elegant poetry certainly deserves a more artistic treatment. If anything can be the perfect visual companion of his poems, it is calligraphy. Calligraphy is an elegant art of writing, and thus suitable to present Ghalib’s intense words. In fact, there is something called Ghalib poetry art where his couplets are written along with a sketch of his. One can Google Ghalib poetry art frames to come across such posters.
The calligraphic style primarily used for writing Urdu is Nast’aliq. This font emerged in Iran in the 15th century after the region was conquered by Arabs. In Nast’aliq font, the letters slope from right to left, thus giving the script an overall ‘hanging’ or ‘ta’liq’ appearance. Originally developed to write the Arabic script, Nastaliq soon began being used to write Persian, Urdu, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Pashto text. Nastaliq was also used to write documents of royal courts.
It is the standard font used to write Urdu in South Asia. Though Urdu, as it comes in a large part from Arabic via Persia, it can be written in other calligraphic fonts such as Diwani, Tughra and Thuluth, which are primarily used for Islamic calligraphy artbutitcomes out best in Nastaliq style as it has always been written in it and is thus perfectly compatible with it – at least in the eyes of the reader.
Nastaliq is less ornate than other calligraphic styles and takes up lesser space in comparison. Therefore, one can write anentire eight-line Urdu poem on a small sheet of paper and fix it on your walls.
Does Urdu calligraphy fall under the category of Islamic calligraphy art? Largely, they don’t. Urdu poetry is mostly secular and non-religious. Therefore, people adhering to various religions can relate to it. But when Urdu couplets are inspired by Islamic teaching, like some of the shairs of Allama Iqbal, there is no harm in including them in the realm of Islamic dalligraphy. In fact, a lot of the Urdu couplets today are inspired by Islam, and when written in calligraphy style, these can comfortably be included in the art of Islamic calligraphy. Indeed, as 80 percent of Muslims are non-Arabs, these days Islamic calligraphy is done in languages other than Arabic such as in English, which is a universal language and can be understood by most people. Indeed, if Islamic art is to be put on walls as spiritual reminders, it is always good to transcribe it in a language one can understand. Though it still is not a replacement of the Arabic – be it in terms of the text or the calligraphy.
Since Ghalib’s poem are mostly secular, it may not be appropriate to include Ghalib poetry art in Islamic calligraphy. One can decorate their homes with Ghalib poetry art frames to express love for Urdu poetry.
