Mir Ali Tabrizi

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Mir Ali Tabrizi (Persian:میر علی تبریزی). Distinguished Iranian calligrapher in 14th century, to whom the invention of Nasta'liq calligraphy style is attributed.

He lived in 14th and 15th century. His full name is "Mir-Ali Heravi Tabrizi" and he is known as father of Nasta'liq, the most popular style of Persian Calligraphy. He was thus titled "Qodwat al-Kottab" (literarily 'the chief of the scribes'). He invented this beautiful calligraphy style by means of combining two older styles together (Naskh and Taliq). Historians have not been able to unveil details of Mir Ali's life yet. It is known that he lived in Tabriz and was a poet as well as an adept calligrapher (see Dehkhoda dictionary). He died in 850th of Hijra (1446-7).

Nasta'liq, is a light and elegant cursive script as other types of Islamic calligraphy. In contrast to other Islamic scripts, the Nasta'liq has characters that appear to swing from the upper right to the lower left of each word as if suspended by an imaginary line. It featured elongated horizontal strokes and exaggerated rounded forms with no serifs. The diacritical marks were casually placed, and the lines were flowing rather than straight. There is a popular myth that Mir Ali Tabrizi dreamt of a flight of geese whose wings and movement inspired the shapes of letters.

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Mirza Jafar Tabrizi, another well-known Iranian calligrapher, was Mir Ali's pupil. Later, Mirza Jafar's students followed Mir Ali's style in Herat, where his scripts were frequently copied and highly praised.