For centuries the art of Arabic calligraphy has been especially respected in the Muslim world. It is thought to be a way of preserving and spreading God’s message enclosed in the Koran. Arabic calligraphy, or Islamic calligraphy, is the art of beautiful writing,a kind of visual art, in which the main facility is the Arabic writing system. Sometimes calligraphy is called the most Islamic form of art. Iranian calligraphers are considered to be the best masters in all directions of this art.
A legend says that at the end of the XIV century a great master rewrote the Holy Koran for Tamerlane in such a tiny form that the whole book could be placed in a ring. Tamerlane was indignant and told the master that the Koran should be rewritten with big letters. The calligrapher did so, and the length of each line was equal to the length of an arm.
Recently, professional calligraphers from Iran visited the Chechen National Museum. They brought about forty of their best works. The exhibition was entitled “The Holy Koran in the reflection of Iranian art.”
Young Chechen artists were invited to the event, and the Iranian masters gave them a master-class. The participants asked them to write their names in Arabic script.
The author of the works, Rakhul Iskhakzade, has been doing Islamic calligraphy for more than 10 years. His writing style – Nastaleeq – was born more than 700 years ago. Nastaleeq correlates with many peculiarities of Farsi and poetry. This style is popular in Turkey, India and Central Asia. Iskhakzade spoke about one of his works, in which Holy messages are made from dough and covered with special paints. “God is beautiful and loves beauty. The Koran is the best present to us by God. We should not only read holy poetry beautifully, but also write it beautifully too,” the master says.
Calligraphy as a form of art is not very popular in Chechnya. Today there are some novice calligraphers. However, one Chechen artist has developed an original method of writing with watercolours.
Together with professional calligraphers, representatives of the Iranian embassy in Russia arrived in Grozny. The exhibition was held within the framework of the mutual project of the Iranian Cultural Centre under the embassy, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims and the National Museum of Chechnya. The Chechen minister of culture discussed with representatives of the Iranian embassy the possibility of carrying out days of Chechen culture in Iran.
Timur Utsayev, Grozny. Exclusively to VK.
