Select a language
English
فارسی
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
  • Painting

    Painting

  • Jadval

    Jadval

    Jadval or “border” refers to the thin lines that surround the four sides of the text and separate it from the margins.  These lines come in different colors and are drawn by metal instruments known as qalam-e jadval or (pens used for drawing borders).  Today, a European version of these pens, known as Terling, is used.  The thickness of the lines could be adjusted by turning a screw on the handle of the qalam-e jadval.

  • Lachaki

    Lachaki

    Triangular decorations drawn on the top and bottom, and sometimes sides, of a chalipā.

  • Page Number Added by Album Editor or Collector

    Page Number Added by Album Editor or Collector

  • Dandān Mushi

    Dandān Mushi

    Literally, "mousy (or mouse-like) teeth." It refers to the cloud-like demarcations used around words in illuminated manuscripts.
  • Raqam

    Raqam

    The tradition of signing or writing one’s name at the end of a manuscript or a piece of calligraphy is ancient; it dates back to the first centuries of Islam.  It is more common to find the name of calligraphers than other artists or craftsmen at the end of manuscripts or inscriptions since they were the ones who did the writing.  There are certain phrases that have come to be customarily included in signatures or raqams; they usually point to the humility of the artists:  al-ḥaqīr (the humble), al-faqīr (the impoverished), etc.

  • Tasmeh Andāzi

    Tasmeh Andāzi

    The thin decorative border that, similar to jadval, separates the text from the margins is called tasmeh.  Tasmeh andāzi is the act of creating this border, which generally repeats the same decorative pattern.

  • Qat‘ah Pardāzi

    Qat‘ah Pardāzi

    Qat‘ah makers would sometimes take one qat‘ah (cutting) or chalipā and place it at the center of a page and would use cuttings from other qat‘ahs and paste them to the central qat‘ah in order to make a bigger and more attractive qat‘ah.  In this piece, this technique has been used with pieces of poetry that are pasted along the border, but are not meant to be related, either in meaning or in calligraphic style, to the poem at the center of the page.

  • Two Dots Under Ye

    Two Dots Under Ye

    Sometimes, in order to achieve aesthetic equilibrium in the representation of a word or in order to fill in space, two dots are written under the letter ی, or an alef maqsorah  ( ٰ ) is written above the the ی.  While these two dots and the alef maqsorah are significant in modern Arabic orthography, they do not carry any particular significance in Persian.

  • Omission of Dots

    Omission of Dots

    Some of the dots for the letters in this remarkable piece were omitted for aesthetic reasons, mainly to maintain a certain equilibrium and flow of writing within the dandān mushi.

Folio from the Golshan Album. Library of the Golestān Palace, Tehran.

Text and Margins

The relationship between the text and margin is noteworthy when the paper used for the text and the paper used for the margin are different.

Margins are generally distinguished from the text with thin lines, called borders or jadval.  Depending on the fineness of the manuscript or book, it could have multiple margins of varying colors.  In fine manuscripts and albums, the paper for the text and the margin are usually of a differing type and color.  Sometimes, the text of a book would be written on two pieces of thin paper that were glued together so that there would not be a shadow from the text on the other side of the page.  For this reason, the paper used for the margin of the page would often be twice as thick as the paper used for the text.  When a single page was used to write on both sides, attention would be paid to choosing a paper with similar thickness with the text in order to avoid wrinkles.  

This is usually done when the margin is damaged.  A type of paper would be selected for the margin similar in color and thickness to the paper used for the text.  This way, the book would close flat, and there would not be wrinkles that would allow air to sieve through the pages.

This method of attaching a new margin would have been done with utmost care so that the paper of the text and of the margin were edge to edge and did not overlap.  Usually, the touching edges of the papers were then hidden from view with colored borders.  Because of the considerable degree of expertise and effort required to create these kinds of pages, this technique is found only in the finest of manuscripts or albums.  

In this piece, it appears that the thin blue border was drawn later than the thicker gold margins since, at certain places, it overlaps the decorative illumination on the page.  The addition of the blue border has the effect of distracting the viewer’s eye from the seam between the text and margin.  

Chalipā

This is a form of writing in which the lettering is not horizontal but written at a 45 degree angle.  It is usually used for writing a couplet or a few verses of poetry in the Nasta‘liq script.

Symmetry

Symmetry is a common aspect of Islamicate arts, but at times slight varieties are embedded in seemingly symmetrical pieces, either for the sake of variety itself or because differing sizes of letters and words, which are out of the control of the artist, would disrupt the symmetry of the page.  As such, despite their symmetrical appearance, there is rarely perfect symmetry in these works.  

You could click on the button for 'Omission of Dots' above to see how certain dots were omitted to maintain a symmetrical flow in the writing.

Tazhib

The art of illuminating manuscripts or the borders of calligraphic works is called tazhib.  It is derived from the Arabic word for gold, dhahab, and it usually requires using gold.  Tazhib, however, is not exclusively in gold.  Other colors such as white, red, azure, etc. are also used.  Tazhib drawings, which have a long history, are not naturalistic drawings; rather they are based on the imagination of the artist and are thus regarded as a distinct form of drawing.

Tazhib can be understood as a specific kind of gilding, but there are two ways in which gold was employed in the traditional art of bookmaking in Iran.  In one, gold papers, which were extremely thin and brittle were used to cover all or part of the surface of a page. In the other, gold was used in liquid solutions for drawing or for writing, as in the case of tazhib.  The following is the traditional method used for making gold solutions.  A small piece of gold was placed between two pieces of leather, and hammered for a long time until a very thin layer of gold was produced.  Then, the thin layer of gold was ground in a container with gum arabic or another type of adhesive material that produced a gold solution, which was then used as ink for writing, drawing, or creating borders.