Shikaste … the beauty that the eye never forgets and that insight never misses …
the finest and most beautiful of the manifestations of the art of Persian calligraphy …
Thank you, Islamic Arts Journal; we await from you an article on this script and its beautiful masterpieces.
Waves of Love — a section from the Hilya of Happiness by the creative artist Esrafil Shirchi, in the Shikaste (“broken”) script. Shikaste is characterized by an increase in the number of curves and breaks in the letters and syllables, merged in an exquisite artistic manner; it is a script derived from the Taʿliq script, in which the marginal notes of books were written in the Safavid period.
The panel is from the collection of Muhammad Firas ʿAbbu.
The written text is: ʿAli (may God be pleased with him), when he described the Prophet (peace be upon him), would say: “He was neither excessively tall nor short, but of medium height among the people. His hair was neither tightly curled nor lank, but curled and wavy. His face was not full nor round, yet there was a roundness to it. He was of fair complexion tinged [with red], with deep-black eyes and long eyelashes … Whoever saw him unexpectedly stood in awe of him, and whoever associated with him and came to know him loved him. The one who describes him says: I have never seen, before him or after him, anyone like him (peace be upon him).”
Photo by Mahmoud Chams Eddin.
