# The Calligraphy of Mishkin-Qalam

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Julie Badiee, The Calligraphy of Mishkin-Qalam, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> The Calligraphy of Mishkin-Qalam*
> Julie Oeming Badiee and Heshmatollah Badiee
> 
> Abstract
> This article will consider the life and work of Aqá Husayn-i-Isfahání, called
> Mishkin-Qalam. Known for his outstanding ability at calligraphy, Mishkin-
> Qalam was invited to work at the court of the Qájár ruler Násiri’d-Din Shah
> during the late 1850s. In the 1860s the artist became caught up in the events
> surrounding the birth of the Bahd’i Revelation, and he moved to Edirne to be
> near its exiled founder Bahď u’lláh. Intrigues at the court o f the Ottoman Sultan
> led to the arrest of Mishkin-Qalam and to his subsequent imprisonment in the
> fortress of Famagusta on the island of Cyprus. The discussion will center on tty
> calligraphic compositions created by Mishkin-Qalam during his stay in
> Famagusta and also on those done during his last years when he rejoined
> Bahd’u lláh in the city of ‘Akkd. The roots of his artistic expression in Islamic
> calligraphic traditions will be considered as well as the extent to which his
> forms were adapted to proclaim the message of the Bahd’i Faith.
> 
> Résumé * *
> Cet article présente la vie et l’oeuvre de Aqá Husayn-i-Isfahání, connu aussi
> sous le nom de Mishkin-Qalam. Célèbre pour son extraordinaire talent de
> calligraphe, Mishkin-Qalam a été invité à travailler à la cour du souverain
> Qâdjars, le Shah Nasiri’d-Din, vers la fin des années 1850. Vers 1860, lartiste
> s’est trouvé impliqué dans les événements qui ont entouré la création du
> mouvement bahď i, et il s’est établi à Edirne pour être à proximité du fondateur
> Bahď u’lláh, en exil. Des intrigues fomentées à la cour du Sultan ottoman
> amenèrent /’arrestation de Mishkin-Qalam et, par la suite, son emprisonnement
> dans la forteresse de Famagusta dans T île de Chypre. La discussion aura pour
> le sujet les compositions calligraphiques créées par Mishkin-Qalam pendant son
> séjour à Famagusta et aussi celles composées à la fin de sa vie quand il a rejoint
> Bahď ú’lláh dans la ville ď Acre. On examinera les origines de son expression
> artistique dans la tradition calligraphique islamique et on étudiera aussi à quel
> point ses formes étaient aptes à proclamer le message de la foi bahaie.
> 
> * A version of this material was presented to the North American Historians of Islamic
> Art in a meeting of the College Art Association at the Metropolitan Museum of Art held
> in February, 1990. The authors would like to acknowledge materials sent to them by
> Gol Aidun, whose own research on Mishkin-Qalam was cut short by her tragic death
> while in India in 1987. This article is dedicated to her memory.
> ** French translation provided by Colette Henriette.
> 2          T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H A ' I S T U D I E S             3 .4 .1 9 9 1
> 
> Resumen *
> Este articulo considéra la vida y obra de Aqá Husayn-i-Isfahání, llamado
> Mishkín-Qalam. Conocido por su excelente caligrafía, Mishkín-Qalam fue
> invitado a trabajar en la corte del monarca Qájár el Sháh Nasirťd-Dín,
> durante los últimos aňos de la década de 1850. Durante la década de los 1860
> el artista participó en los acontecimientos que acompaňaron el nacimiento del
> movimiento Bahâ’i, y se traskadô a Edirne para estar cerca del jindador
> exiliado Bahď u’llâh. Las intrigas en la corte del sultán otomano resultaron en
> el encarcelamiento de Mishkín-Qalam en la fortaleza de Famagusta en la isla
> de Chipre. La discusión se centrarâ sobre las composiciones caligráficas
> creadas por Mishkín-Qalam durante su estadia en Famagusta y también
> aquellas que hizo durante sus últimos aňos, cuando volvió a encontrarse con
> Bahá’u’lláh en la ciudad de Accá. Las raices de su expresión artistica en la
> tradición islámica de caligrafía serán consideradas tanto como la manera en
> que sus formas fueron adaptadas para proclamar el mensaje de lafe Bahà’i.
> 
> his article will explore the calligraphy of Áqá Husayn-i-Isfahání, better known
> T    by the honorific title, Mishkín-Qalam, or "the musk-scented pen” (figure 1).
> Although trained in the Islamic tradition of the calligraphic arts and capable of
> attaining a high station at the Persian court of Násiri’d-Dín Sháh. Mishkín-Qalam
> chose to use his artistic talents for service to the BaháT Faith, a choice that caused
> an unprecedented transformation both in his calligraphy and in his life.
> 
> Figure 1. Photograph of
> Mishkín-Qalam. Reprinted
> from Balyuzi, Eminent
> Bahá' is 271
> 
> * Spanish translation provided by Isabel Valida.
> The Calligraphy o f Mishkin-Oalam                                3
> 
> Áqá Husayn-i-Isfahání came from a well-known merchant family of Isfahán in
> Iran. The family seems to have come originally from Khurásán and still
> maintained business interests in the city of Mashhad. Interestingly, this family
> played a crucial role in Edward Granville Browne’s first contact with the Bahà’is
> during his famous “year amongst the Persians.” It was in February 1888 that the
> English Orientalist first spoke to a relative of Mishkin-Qalam, the merchant Mirza
> Javád who, at some risk to himself, confided to Browne, “I am a BábÍ.” This
> confession began the chain of events that would lead Browne to his lifelong study
> of the Bábí-Bahá’í Faiths (Browne, A Year 223).
> 
> The Calligraphic Tradition in Islam
> The young Husayn-i-Isfahání grew up in Muslim Iran of the nineteenth century
> and, as a talented calligrapher, absorbed the time-honored traditions of that art.
> Calligraphy, or the art of beautiful writing, was considered the highest of all art   *
> forms in the Muslim world. Arabic letters were essentially the language of God,
> for it was in Arabic that the Qur’àn was revealed. If, in Christianity the Word
> was made flesh in the human form of Christ, in Islam the Word was embodied
> in the Q ur’àn, a direct Revelation from God. Given the importance of the
> Arabic script and its religious meaning, it is not surprising to find words and
> letters to be the basic “subject m atter” of Islamic art. The letters appear
> everywhere—on ceramics, on textiles, on glass, and as architectural decoration
> on mosques. The didactic function of images in the Christian churches was
> accomplished in the mosque by the bold and beautiful letters of the verses of the
> Qur’àn, or with the names of God, his Messenger Muhammad, and the four
> Rightly Guided Caliphs. It is no wonder that the history of art in Muslim lands
> begins with calligraphy as the most respected of all art forms.
> No educated Muslftn would neglect the skills of calligraphy, for in Muslim
> lands the connection between moral rectitude and calligraphic excellence was
> often made. In the ninth century, the Muslim ruler of Khurásán addressed this
> letter to an underling:
> 
> We were willing to accept your excuse, but in view of your bad handwriting we
> changed our mind. If you had been truthful in stating your case, the movement of
> your hand would have aided you. Or, do you now know that a beautiful handwriting
> speaks for the writer, makes his arguments convincing and enables him to obtain
> what he wants? (Welch, Calligraphy 33)
> 
> A lifetime of work might go into the cultivation of the ability to write the
> perfect forms of letters— a goal not easily attained. The following story
> concerning an event that was alleged to have occurred after a great earthquake
> in Tabriz in 1777 illustrates this point:
> 4            T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H À ’ Î S T U D I E S               3.4.1991
> 
> The calamity fell in the middle of the night. At dawn survivors were running hither
> and thither hoping to find those buried in the debris who might still be alive. One
> search party discovered a spark of light from deep down in the basement of a ruined
> house. They set to work frantically, hoping to effect a rescue. When they finally dug
> their way through, they discovered a man sitting on the floor bent over a small piece
> of paper, working by the light of a candle, intensely absorbed in writing. They called
> to him to hurry out, more shocks were coming, and the ruins were still dangerous; but
> there was no response. He bent over his work, still absorbed. Several times they
> shouted to him, till finally he looked up, asking why they were disturbing him. When
> informed that the town had been almost demolished by an earthquake, that thousands
> had been, and there was hardly time left for him to escape, he replied: “What is all
> that to me?” and proudly exhibited his paper on which was a perfect waw, a
> particularly difficult letter to make. “After many thousands of trials I have at last
> achieved one that is absolutely perfect,” he said, “and such a perfect letter is worth
> more than the whole city.” (Quoted in Welch, Calligraphy 34)
> 
> Islamic calligraphy developed into a number of recognizable styles— the
> vigorous, square kufic of early Islam, the beautiful, flowing thulth with its
> emphasis on the vertical alefs and lams, the elegant nashki and the small, fine
> letters of the nasta'liq. A later style, the shikastih, was the favored writing style
> of Qájár Iran. The word shikastih means “broken,” and the beauty of the letters
> lies in the sense of the delicately floating quality of the words with their long,
> drooping tails, almost like tresses of hair. This is one of the scripts employed by
> both the Báb and BaháVlláh.
> Islamic calligraphy also developed into another popular art form in which
> illustrated birds and beasts were made up of the letters of the Arabic alphabet.
> Qádí Ahmad in his seventeenth-century treatise on calligraphers and painters
> wrote that a certain Mauláná Mahmud Chapnivis of Herat “invented a style of
> writing in which combinations of letters formed images of men and beasts”
> 0Calligraphers 132-33). This technique has been variously dated as having
> begun in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It became particularly popular in the
> nineteenth century, with the most common subjects being those of a lion
> (associated with ‘All) or a bird, often a parrot, usually made up of the letters
> forming the quranic invocation hismťlláh al-rahmán al-rahim (in the name of
> God, the Merciful, the Compassionate) (figure 2). Mishkin-Qalam would prove
> himself to be proficient in all of these forms of calligraphy. Examples of the
> diversity of his calligraphic forms can be seen in his copy of some of the verses
> from The Hidden Words o f Baha u’lláh in nasta'liq, shikastih, and naskh
> (figure 3). It was later in his career that he developed his proficiency in the
> depiction of calligraphic birds.
> 
> Mishkin-Qalam’s Early Years
> When Áqá Husayn-i-Isfahání was about twenty-five years old, he set out for
> Mashhad to settle the business accounts of his late fnllier. The first leg of his
> The Calligraphy o f Mishkin-Oalam                                   5
> 
> Figure 2. ALBUM LEAF WITH CALLIGRAPHIC BIRD. A parrot formed of Arabic
> letters spelling out the Muslim invocation “In the name of God, the Merciful, the
> Compassionate.” Iran, 1834-35. Cincinnati Art Museum, Fanny Bryce Lehmer Fund
> 
> Figure 3. Verses from The Hidden Words o f Bahá’u1lláh. The calligraphy is by Mishkrn-
> Qalam and is in the nasta'liq, naskh. and shikastih styles. 1881-82. Reprinted from
> Balyuzi, Bahá’u lláh: The King ofGIoiy 161
> *
> 
> 6              T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á Í S T U D I E S                3.4.1991
> 
> journey, however, led him to Tehran, and it is here, the story goes, that his
> artistic abilities became known to the royal court when he did a quick sketch of
> Nasiri’d-Din Shàh’s Prime Minister as he walked through the bazaar. According
> to the accounts of this event, Mishkin-Qalam did this portrait in a technique
> known as khatt-i-nakhún in which the image is engraved with a fingernail into
> the back of a sheet. This encounter ultimately led to an appointment for Aqá
> Husayn-i-Isfahání as tutor to the Crown Prince. His work became known in the
> court, and Nasiri’d-Din Sháh himself was said to have given the artist the title
> Mishkin-Qalam (Ishraq-KMvarí. Núrayn 72-83).
> The central event in Mishkin-Qalam’s life, however, was not his elevation to
> a high position in the Qájár court, but his encounter with the BaháT' Faith. This
> encounter occurred on a leave of absence from the Shah’s court when Mishkin-
> Qalam was returning to Isfahán to visit his family. On the way he met Siyyid
> Mihdi, a devout BaháT who told him about Bahà’uTlàh. In an interview in 1979
> with Gol Aidun, Hand of the Cause Mr. ‘AbduT-Qasim Faizi recounted the
> story of Mishkin-Qalam’s acceptance of the BaháT Faith:
> 
> . . . before Mishkin Qalam accepted the BaháT' Faith, he was a “dervish” with long,
> flowing hair, detached from the world and attached only to his calligraphy. One day,
> while he was breaking his journey, he was given a room to share with a stranger.
> When Mishkin-Qalam entered the room, he greeted the stranger with the invocation
> "Yá Alláh!” (O God!). The stranger who happened to be a BaháT, asked him whether
> he knew God since he had mentioned His name. Mishkin-Qalam replied, “Of
> course.” The stranger replied, “No, for you must know the Prophet of your time to
> know God.” The stranger then told Mishkin-Qalam all about Bahâ’u’llâh, and by
> dawn the latter accepted the BaháT' Faith and the next day accompanied the stranger
> on his journey towards Baghdad and eventually came into the presence of
> BaháVUáh in Adrianople. (Aidun, “Mishkin-Qalam” 25)
> 
> In the unpublished second volume of his history, Nabil gives the account of
> how he found Mishkin-Qalam quite ill in the city of Aleppo. It was here that
> Mishkin-Qalam became truly confirmed in his new Faith (Nakhjavání, Four on
> an Island 22). ‘AbduT-Bahá tells us that Mishkin-Qalam “crossed the great
> distances, measured out the miles, climbing mountains, passing over deserts and
> over the sea, until at last he came to A drianople” (present-day Edirne)
> (Memorials 98). Here he found BaháV Uáh and became one of a group of
> devoted disciples happily willing to share Bahà’u’hàh’s exile. In a photograph
> taken during this time period (figure 4), Mishkin-Qalam appears in the center of
> the back row of a group of BaháTs residing in Edime (Balyuzi, King of Glory
> 242). Characteristically, he seems to be holding writing materials. After a time,
> however, apparently on the order of BaháVUáh, Mishkin-Qalam went to nearby
> Istanbul where he created several specimens of calligraphy for the Ottoman
> Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Aziz (Momen, Accounts 311). Unfortunately, Mishkin-Qalam
> The C alligraphy o f M ishkin-Q alam                             7
> 
> had an enemy at court in the Persian ambassador who spoke out against him, and
> Mishkin-Qalam was ultimately jailed in 1867 for his association with the BaháTs
> (Balyuzi, Eminent B ahď ís 271). M ishkin-Qalam was said to have been
> particularly distraught about this occurrence as he had no pen or paper with him.
> To quote an account of the incident: “. . . at last, the officials succumbed to his
> loud expostulations and, to obtain some peace,provided him with all the writings
> material he needed, which greatly pacified him” (Balyuzi, King of Glory 252).
> 
> Figure 4. Mishkin-Qalam with the companions of BaháVUáh in Edime. Reprinted from
> Balyuzi, Bahď iťltáh: The King o f Glory 242
> 
> The Exile to Cyprus
> However, greater calam ities were to come. In 1868, it was decided that
> BaháVUáh would be exiled to the prison-city of ‘Akká in Palestine. His half-
> brother Mťrzá-Yahyá, unsuccessful claimant to the leadership of the BaháT'
> community, would be sent to the prison in Famagusta on the island of Cyprus.
> To insure that each faction would not operate independently of the other, the
> Ottoman authorities sent a group of followers of Mírzá-Yahyá with BaháVUáh
> to ‘Akká and four followers of B aháV U áh with Mírzá-Yahyá to Cyprus
> (Nakhjavání, Four on an Island). Mishkin-Qalam was one of the four sent to
> Cyprus. For a devoted follower of BaháVUáh, this was a calamity of great
> dimension; in fact, one of the four exiled to Cyprus was so overcome with
> despair that he threw himself into the sea but was resuscitated by the sailors on
> shipboard and sent on to the island (Balyuzi, King o f Glory 269).
> 8          T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’I S T U D I E S            3 . 4 . 1991
> 
> M ishkin-O alam was able to continue his calligraphy in spite of his
> imprisonment on Cyprus, and ultimately he was allowed to run a small teashop
> on the island. Several examples of his calligraphy remain to us from this period.
> The piece illustrated in figure 5 dates from 1877, and the inscription states that
> it was done in the ninth year of Mishkin-Qalam’s captivity. The calligraphy is
> of the letters contained in the name Husayn-‘Ali, the given name of BaháV lláh,
> 
> Figure 5. Calligraphic design with
> the name of Husayn-‘Ali in the
> “m irror sty le.” Created by
> Mishkin-Qalam in 1877 while in
> captivity in Famagusta. Courtesy
> of the Audio-Visual Department
> of the Bahà’f World Centre, Haifa,
> Israel
> 
> and was created in a style known as ‘aynali, or mirror script. This type of design
> consisted of a formula repeated to the right and to the left of an imaginary axis
> and was particularly popular in the nineteenth century in Turkey (Schimmel,
> Islamic Calligraphy 11). Mishkin-Qalam could have developed his proficiency
> in the style during his stay at the Ottoman Court. The use of the given name for
> Bahà’u’ilàh may have served as a kind of personal announcement on the part of
> Mishkin-Qalam that his faith in B aháV lláh had not wavered in spite of nine
> years of imprisonment with the treacherous Mírzá-Yahyá and his followers.
> A more elaborate work from the period on Cyprus can be seen in this
> double-page composition (figures 6 and 7). The inscription below states that it
> was made in Famagusta by “a prisoner of the love of God, He who is the help in
> peril, the self-subsisting. These double facing pages were made by the servant at
> the gate of Bahá, Mishkin-Qalam in the year 1295” (a .d . 1878). This distinctive
> signature appears in all of the major compositions of Mishkin-Qalam and
> includes within it references both to the Báb (the Gate) and BaháVlláh.
> I he Calligraphy o f Mishkin-Qalam                               9
> 
> Figure 6. Right side of a double­
> page com position by M ishkin-
> Qalam. Famagusta, Cyprus, 1878.
> Courtesy of the National Bahà’i
> Archives, Wilmette, Illinois
> 
> Figure 7. Left side of a double-page
> composition by Mishkin-Qalam.
> Famagusta, Cyprus, 1878. Courtesy
> of the National BaháT Archives,
> Wilmette, Illinois
> 
> An interesting developm ent in this work is what appears to be a kind of
> ,/.. ,>upayx design in which Mishkin-Qalam has decorated the piece with cut-out
> and pasted floral designs. This type of design echoes similar elements in Qájár
> P< noil lacquer works and enamels, which have naturalistic floral decoration
> mn< h like that which appears in the plumage of M ishkin-Qalam’s birds. The
> odd 11tou of the pointing finger in the neck o f each bird is a m ore unusual
> 12           T H E J O U R N A L Ol       li A 11 Á *Í S T U D I E S       3.4.199 1
> 
> The Release from Cyprus
> In 1878 when Cyprus came under British jurisdiction, the Commissioner of
> Famagusta described Mishkin-Qalam (figure 9) in these words:
> 
> Maskin Kalam. From Korassom IKhurâsânl. Allowed 660 Pias. per month.
> Sentence—for life. Been here 11 years. Came here at same time as Subbe Ezel.
> Sentenced for religious offence against Porte. 53 years old. Has two families, one
> here, and one in Persia. In appearance is a dried-up, shrivelled old man, with long
> hair almost to the waist. (Momen, Accounts 307)
> 
> Figure 9. Photograph of M ishkin-
> Qalam. Reprinted from Browne,
> Materials for the Study of the Bábi
> Religion 44
> 
> A further description by the British authorities explains the reason for the
> imprisonment:
> 
> “They wished to invent some new religion, and, when pressed, fled from Persia and
> settled in Turkey. After a time they again tried to carry out their madness, and were
> consequently condemned by the Turkish authorities to imprisonment for life.”
> (Quoted in Momen, Accounts 306-7)
> 
> Mishkin-Qalam requested permission to leave Cyprus in 1878, but due to
> bureaucratic entanglements he had to wait until September 1886, when he was
> finally allowed to go to ‘Akká (Momen, Accounts 311). So it was that after
> nineteen years of exile Mishkin-Qalam was allowed to leave Cyprus and to join
> B aháV lláh. In a photograph probably dating from this period, the artist is
> shown in the back row, third from the right, with white hair, visibly aged from
> his long ordeal (figure 10). ‘Abdu'1-Bahá wrote a letter to the calligrapher to
> celebrate his return to the BaháTs: “O thou divine Mishkin! A thousand praises
> 
> The Calligraphy o f Mishkin-Qalam                              13
> 
> Figure 10. Mishkin-Qalam (top row, third from right) with the companions of
> BaháVlláh in ‘Akká. Photograph courtesy of David L. Smith
> 
> be to the One True God that for years thou didst suffer in the path of the
> Heavenly Beauty, enduring separation, affliction and captivity, and no sooner
> was there some respite in restrictions, than thou didst hasten to the Most Great
> P rison, turned thy face away from all else but Him . .               (quoted in
> Nakhiavání. Four on an Island 51 ).
> It was soon after his reunion with B aháV lláh and the community of the
> BaháTs that Mishkin-Qalam painted this beautiful bird (figure 11) now in the
> 
> Figure 11. Rooster made up of the
> letters spelling out “In the name of
> God, the Most Glorious of the
> G lorious.” By M ishkin-Qalam.
> Bahji, 1887-88. Courtesy of the
> Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard
> University. Gift of John Goelet
> 
> 14           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’ I S T U D I E S               3.4.1991
> 
> Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University. The body of the bird is
> composed of the letters making up the phrase bismi’llâh al-bahíyyu’l-abhá (in
> the name of God the Most Glorious of the Glorious), an invocation common
> among the BaháTs. The talon of the rooster rests upon an open book, which
> contains a lawh, or tablet, of Bahà’uTlàh that has been written in shikastih. The
> Tablet is addressed to a follower named Dia and reads:
> 
> He is the Eternal! God bears witness that I have believed in the One at the mention
> of whose name those brought near drink the wine of life and those who are sincere
> have drunk that which all in heaven and earth are powerless to comprehend, unless
> your Lord, the All-Knowing, and all-Wise, has wished them to do so. O Dia, be
> patient in adversity, content in worldly matters and firm in your conviction of truth.
> Be quick to strive for the good, be humble toward God and be one who overlooks the
> shortcomings of other men. Be one who turns from foolish passions and hastens to
> the Truth. Be one who is compassionate in the presence of sin. Be one who upholds
> God’s covenant and is firm in God’s cause. This wronged one counsels you to these
> things and to the fear of God. He counsels you to fidelity and truthfulness, both are
> incumbent upon you. Truly, both are incumbent upon you. Blessed are you and
> blessed is the one who loves you for the sake of God. Woe to the one who annoys
> you and turns from what God has commanded. (This translation appears in Welch,
> Calligraphy, cat. no. 71 )
> 
> A large cartouche at the side o f the page cont ai ns Mi s hkf n- Oa l a m’s
> distinctive signature “The servant at the Gate of Bahá, Mishkin-Qalam, year
> 1305” (a .d . 1887-88).
> 
> Some Unusual Works by Mishkin-Qalam
> A later piece of calligraphy dated 1890 contains a different theme, that of a
> human face (figure 12). A work like this has connections to Bahà’i themes but
> can also be seen to have roots in the Iranian mystical traditions. In fact, before
> his association with the BaháTs, Mishkin-Qalam was a Sufi, a member of the
> Ni’matu’llâhi order (Balyuzi, Eminent Bahá’is 270). Therefore, it would not be
> surprising that Mishkin-Qalam would have been influenced by some of the
> older Sufi traditions, among them the concepts that had been developed in the
> fourteenth century by Fadlulláh of Astarábád. Among other ideas FadluTláh
> stressed the importance of the letters of the Arabic alphabet and their numerical
> values. Those who followed these ideas were called Hurúfís (the name derives
> from the Arabic harf (singular)/ hurúf (plural) meaning “letters” (Encyclopedia
> of Islam, s.v. “Hurúfí” 3:600-601). This is, of course, an ancient concept
> already well developed in the Phoenician, Greek, and Hebrew traditions and
> prevalent in the Eastern Mediterranean area for centuries. It emerged in Islam in
> the abjad, a system in which each letter of the alphabet was assigned a specific
> numerical value. Both the Báb and Bahà’uTlàh used this system, as it made
> The Calligraphy o f Mishkin-Qalam                                   15
> 
> Figure 12. Calligraphic design
> in the shape of a human face.
> By M ishkin-Qalam . 1890.
> Courtesy of the National
> Bahà’i Archives, Wilmette,
> Illinois
> 
> their writings more accessible to those trained in the ancient traditions. The
> Hurúfís themselves placed so much emphasis on the sacred nature of letters and
> numbers that, for them, all of the letters and their numerical values represented
> the total of all the emanating and creative possibilities of God and were indeed,
> God Himself made manifest (Schimmel, Islamic Culture 106). Thus the Arabic
> letters were the archetypes for the entire cosmos (Bausani, “Mystical Language”
> 234). It was the Hurúfí belief that this divine writing appeared in creation in the
> faces of humanity itself and that the features of the human physiognomy were
> reminiscent of the shapes of various letters:
> 
> The four eyelids and the two eyebrows and hair of the head, there are seven lines, O
> just God. Those who had insight and have been granted ‘ilm al-kitáb can understand
> the secret written in the human face. (Schimmel, Islamic Culture 106)
> 
> Another description reads:
> f
> Between the two eyes ( ‘ayn) of the friend from the nun of the eyebrows to the mim of
> the mouth the nose has drawn an alef on the face of silver. (Schimmel, Islamic
> Culture 107) [Authors’ note: ’ayn, nun, mim, alef are all letters in the Persian and
> Arabic alphabets.]
> «
> 
> 16           TH E J O U R N A L OF H A I I À ’ Î S T U DI E S               3 . 4.-199 1
> 
> The Hurúfí ideas spread into India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
> A poet in the eighteenth century wrote:
> 
> Your face is like a Qur’àn copy without correction and mistake which the Pen of Fate
> has written exclusively from musk. Your eyes and your mouth are verses and the dot
> for stopping, your eyebrows the madda, eyelashes the sign of declension, the mole
> and the down the letters and the dots. (Schimmel, Islamic Culture 107) [Authors’
> note: The madda is a diacritical mark in Arabic.]
> 
> Clearly, Mishkin-Qalam has been strongly influenced by these traditions but has
> recast them with a BaháT meaning. Returning to the calligraphic face (figure
> 12), one may read the poetry in the cartouches to the side, which can be
> translated: “From the Dawn of Eternity, O most Sublime of the Sublime, on the
> surface of the faces of humanity has been written the name-Bahá.” The letters
> making up the head and face are more difficult to read. In fact, it is one of the
> characteristics of this style that it be like a puzzle, difficult to comprehend and
> not clear at first, or even second, glance. The letters making up the hair and face
> (eyes, eyebrows, nose, and hair) of this figure appear to spell out the phrase yá
> ‘á lfu l-‘alá’ (O Most Sublime of the Sublime) while the ears, the border of the
> face, and the neck seem to spell out yá ibn al-haqq (O Son of Truth).1
> The use of the number nine in the eye area reflects the importance of this
> number in Bábi and BaháT traditions. In the BaháT' teachings the number nine
> suggests the unity of all the other numbers in that it is the last new number
> before the progression begins again. In the abjad reckoning the number nine is
> the total of the numbers assigned to the letters in the word Balm and thus a
> symbol for Bahà’uTlàh. Therefore as the poem suggests, the name Bahá is
> written upon the human face.
> 
> 1. The authors have spent many hours struggling with this difficult calligraphic
> puzzle and would welcome further suggestions for its interpretation. In connection with
> the use of the word haqq (Truth), which is given such prominence in the face, it is
> interesting to note that in Bahà’u’llâh’s time there existed in the areas around Baghdad
> and northern Mesopotamia a group of people calling themselves ahl-i-haqq (The People
> of the Truth). In the early days of Islam, these people believed in the divinity of ‘Alt and
> were known generally as the ‘AlíyuTláhí. With the advent of the Baha’i Revelation, a
> number of prominent leaders of this group became ardent followers of Bahà’uTlàh; one
> composed a book in which he pointed out the prophecies of their ancient texts that had
> all been fulfilled in the coming of the Báb and Baha’u’llah. Sidq-’Ali, a dervish from
> this background, met BaháVlláh in the mountains of Sulimaniyyih and became such a
> devoted follower that while Bahà’u’Uàh was in the barracks of ‘Akká He set aside a
> special night each year that would be dedicated to the dervish Sidq-’Ali (Balyuzi,
> Eminent Bahá’is 314-21). Perhaps further research on this topic will establish a link
> between Mishkin-Qalam’s use of the word haqq in his calligraphic face and the tradition
> of these devoted followers of Baha’u’llah.
> The C alligraphy o f M ishkin-Q alam                            17
> 
> Above the head we can see a calligraphic arrangement, which the Bahà’is
> refer to as the ism-i-a'zam , or the Greatest Name of God. Islamic tradition holds
> that there are ninety-nine beautiful names of God, but the Greatest Name is that
> name “when called by which He (God) answers and when asked by which He
> gives” (Encyclopedia of Islam, s.v. “dhikr” 2:223-27). For the Sufis, “the hope
> of discovering the Greatest Name of God has inspired many a Sufi who
> dreamed of reaching the highest bliss in this world and the next by means of this
> blessed name” (Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions 25). For the Bahà’is the sacred
> character of the Greatest Name of God, “ Yá Bahá’u’l - A b h á ushers in the time
> of the end when all of the prophecies of God are fulfilled and the seekers of the
> Greatest Name of God will find their desire.
> In a final version of the themes that fascinated Mishkin-Qalam, we can see
> in another work (figure 13) a bringing together of a number of his symbolic
> elements. Again, the double birds appear holding open books containing verses
> from The Hidden Words o f Bahá’u lláh. The use of the mirror-image of the
> birds may suggest the Twin Manifestations of God, the Báb and BaháV lláh,
> who are both the Heralds and the Proclaimers of the new age. Behind them, like
> the Sun of Truth, the face of Light (Bahá) arises from the Dawn of Eternity.
> One is reminded of the description of the Seventh Valley of B aháV lláh in
> which “on the horizon of eternity the Divine Face riseth out of the darkness, and
> the meaning of ‘All on the earth shall pass away, but the face of thy Lord . . .’
> (Qur’àn 55:26-27) is made manifest” (BaháVlláh, Seven Valleys 37). (Readers
> 
> Figure 13. Double birds and a human face. Courtesy of the Audio-Visual Department of
> the BaháT World Centre, Haifa, Israel
> O
> 18          T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’ í S T U D I E S               3.4.1991
> 
> are, of course, reminded that this “face” is meant only in symbolic terms, for the
> Supreme Deity is not thought of as being anthropomorphic in either the Islamic
> or BaháT traditions).
> In looking at the work of Mishkin-Qalam, we may have an interesting
> glimpse of the development of imagery in the early stages of a religion. The
> Baha’i Faith at its beginnings faced the same challenge Christianity did, that is,
> a working out of its relationship to the religion from which it first developed
> and a determining of the extent to which its followers still identified with the
> traditions of their ancestors or the extent to which they struggled to create
> images that would suggest something new. Although Mishkin-Qalam's art work
> is well within the Islamic idiom of the time in which it was created, its purpose
> was different and that was essentially to proclaim the advent of a new faith. The
> old visual vocabulary of the Islamic tradition was charged with new meanings
> and expressed a new message to the viewer. The use of letters to make up these
> images specifically recalls Shi’ih messianic beliefs that when the Qà’im appears
> “the entire cosmos (although seemingly the same as before) is in reality
> destroyed and then recreated anew by the Word of the Divine Manifestation”
> (Bausani, “Mystical Language” 238).
> 
> Mishkin-Qalam’s Last Years
> In the later years of his life, Mishkin-Qalam travelled to Egypt, Damascus, and
> India where he became involved in the first publications of the BaháT Faith in
> that land. He wrote the words of the BaháT' Revelation in his beautiful hand so
> that they could be mass printed for others to read (Balyuzi, Eminent Bahďís
> 121). Mishkin-Qalam also continued his figurai compositions as in this work
> done in India and dated 1905 (figure 14). The familiar double birds are present,
> yet their type has been changed from a rooster to that of a dove with a long,
> drooping tail. The birds hold open books that contain verses from Bahà’uTlàh’s
> Hidden Words', Mishkin-Qalam’s signature is at the lower center portion in a
> decorative cartouche. The birds turn around to face a tree, which also contains a
> section of the The Hidden Words. The center tree must surely refer to the
> Sadratu’l-Muntahá, “the Divine Lote-Tree.” Described in the Qur’àn, this was
> the “ ‘Tree beyond which neither men nor angels can pass,’ and which stands in
> the Seventh Heaven, the highest Paradise, at the right hand of the throne of God”
> (Gail, introduction Epistle by BaháVlláh, xiii). The calligraphic page brings to
> mind the following passage from Bahà’u’Uàh’s Epistle to the Son of the Wolf:
> 
> O Shavkh! Thou hast heard the sweet melodies of the Doves of Utterance cooing on
> the boughs of the Lote-Tree of Knowledge. Harken, now. unto the notes of the Birds
> of Wisdom upraised in the Most Sublime Paradise. . . . Give ear unto that which the
> Tongue of Might and Power hath spoken in the Books of God. . . . At this moment a
> Voice was raised from the Lote-Tree beyond which there is no passing, in the heart of
> the Most Sublime Paradise, bidding Me relate unto thee that which hath been sent
> The Calligraphy o f Mishkin-Qalam                                19
> 
> Figure 14. Two doves at the SadratuT-Muntahá. Bombay, 1905. Design and calligraphy
> by Mishkin-Qalam. A photograph of this piece, the location of which is now unknown,
> was sent to the authors by Gol Aidun
> 
> Figure 15. A photograph of Mishkin-
> Qalam near the end of his life.
> Reprinted from Balyuzi, Bahau’Uàh:
> King of Glory 249
> 20           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H A ’ I S T U D I E S                  3.4.1991
> 
> down in the Books and Tablets, and the things sfj/ikdn by My Forerunner (the Báb],
> Who laid down His life for this Great Announcement. . . . (Bahà’u’Hàh, Epistle
> 140-41)
> 
> It was only at the very end of his life that Mishkin-Qalam returned once
> again to Bahji (figure 15). Hearing that the calligrapher was old and weak,
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá requested that Mishkin-Qalam return to ‘Akká in the year 1905.
> One of Mishkin-Qalam’s last services to the BaháT Faith was to design the
> calligraphic inscriptions carved on the marble sarcophagus given by the BaháTs
> of Burma to hold the remains of the Báb. In an emotional memorial service held
> on March 21, 1909, the sarcophagus was set into the hillside tomb built by
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahà on the slopes of Mount Carmel. The signature of Mishkin-Qalam
> appears on the sarcophagus; indeed, his first wish had been to sign himself as
> the servant of ‘Abdu’l-Bahà. But, at ‘Abdu’l-Bahà’s order, the signature was
> changed to the characteristic “servant at the Gate (Báb) of Bahá” (Mooghen,
> “Khoshnevísán-i-BaháT” 147). Mishkin-Qalam was cared for at Bahji until his
> death in 1912. ‘Abdu’l-Bahà tells how “when I was absent, he left this darksome,
> narrow world and hastened away to the land of lights” (Memorials 101).
> There is a moving portrait of Mishkin-Qalam in his old age, which appears
> in a novel by E. S. Stevens entitled The Mountain of God :
> 
> An old, old man whose scanty white hair flowed half-way to his waist beneath his
> turban, sat on a bed within a simple little room. He wore the native Persian dress. . . .
> An elaborate specimen of Persian script in black and gold, framed and hung on the
> wall was the only ornament which the room boasted. . . . “And now, Mírzá
> Mushkín, I beg you to show me the writing if it is finished. . . .” The old man
> shuffled off the bed, and going to a wooden chest took from it, after a little search, a
> roll of parchment-like paper. Then he drew his tottering old limbs beneath him on the
> bed again, and handed the roll to the Persian. .. .
> “Your hand does not shake!”
> “Eh hamdu’lillâh! My hand is sure. They do not understand how to write
> nowadays, they are too quick. The values of the letters are nothing to them. They
> even write on tables. There is only one way to write perfectly, and that is to hold the
> paper in the palm of the hand. And when one is learning, one should practise by
> night—there is no light like candlelight. But there are few who can write. . . .”
> His spare white hair, long like a woman’s, betokening his rank, gave him an
> eldritch look, as if something not of this world. But there was a youthful triumph in
> his worn, old eyes that had worked so long over the making of beautiful things.
> (Stevens, Mountain 110-12)2
> 
> 2. Excerpts from this novel are reprinted in World Order 4.3 (Spring, 1970): 28-52.
> t
> 
> The C alligraphy o f M ishkin-Q alam                        21
> 
> Works Cited
> 
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful. Wilmette: Bahà’i Publishing Trust,
> 1971.
> Aidun, Gol. “ M ishkin-Q alam , The G reat C alligrapher and Humori st . ”
> Unpublished paper delivered at the New England Regional Conference of
> the Association for BaháT Studies, 1982.
> B aháV lláh. Epistle to the Son o f the Wolf. Trans. Shoghi Effendi. 3d ed.
> Wilmette: BaháT Publishing Trust, 1988.
> --------- . Kitáb-i-íqán (Book of Certitude). Trans. Shoghi Effendi. 2d ed.
> Wilmette: BaháT'Publishing Trust, 1950.
> --------- . The Seven Valleys and the Fôur Valleys. Trans. M. Gail with A. K.
> Khan. 3d ed. Wilmette: BaháT' Publishing Trust, 1978.
> --------- . Tablets o f Bahá’u’lláh. Comp. Research Departm ent. Trans. H.
> Taherzadeh et al. 2d ed. Haifa: BaháT' World Centre, 1978.
> Balyuzi, H. M. Baha u lláh: King of Glory. Oxford: George Ronald, 1980.
> --------- . Eminent Bahá’is in the Time of Baha u lláh. Oxford: George Ronald,
> 1985.
> Bausani, Alessandro. “About a curious ‘mystical’ language” in East and West:
> Instituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente 4 (1953): 234-48.
> Browne, Edward Granville. A Year Amongst the Persians. London: Century
> Publishing, 1984.
> --------- . Materials for the Study of the Bábi Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge
> University Press, 1961.
> Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad. Son of Mir-Munshi.
> Trans. E. V. Minorsky. Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1959.
> Encyclopedia of Islam, The. 2d ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1983.
> Encyclopedia o f Religion, The. Mircea Eliade, editor-in-chief. New York:
> MacMillan, 1987.
> Ish raq -K h áv arí. ‘A bduT-H am íd. Núrayn-i-Nayyirayn. Tehran: B ahà’i
> Publishing Trust, 1967.
> Mooghen, Amanullah. “Athár va áhvál-i-b‘adí az Khoshnevísán-i-Bahá’í” in
> Khúshih-há’í az Kharman-i-Adab va honar. Landegg, Switzerland:
> Association of Culture and Art, 1990.
> Mome n, M oojan. The Bábi and B ahá’i Religions 1844-1944: Some
> Contemporary Accounts. Oxford: George Ronald, 1981.
> Nakhiavání. Bahiyyih. Four on an Island. Oxford: George Ronald, 1983.
> Safadi, Yasin Hamid. Islamic Calligraphy. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1978.
> Schimmel, Anne-Marie. Calligraphy and Islamic Culture. New York: New
> York University Press, 1984.
> --------- . Islamic Calligraphy. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970.
> 22        T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’ I S T U D I E S       3.4.1991
> 
> -------- - Mystical Dimensions o f Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North
> Carolina Press, 1975.
> -------- . Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddin Rumi. London and
> The Hague: East-West Publications, 1978.
> Stevens, E. S. The Mountain of God. London: Mills and Boon, 1911.
> Welch, Anthony. Calligraphy in the Arts o f the Muslim World. Austin:
> University of Texas Press, 1979.
>
> — *The Calligraphy of Mishkin-Qalam (Used by permission of the curator)*