Nastaliq is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write Arabic script and is used for some Indo-Iranian languages, predominantly Classical Persian, Urdu, Kashmiri and Punjabi. It is often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, but rarely for Arabic. Nastaliq developed in Iran from naskh beginning in the 13th century and remains widely used in Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries for written poetry and as a form of art.
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Nastaʿlīq script in the context of Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp
The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp (Persian: شاهنامه شاهطهماسب) or Houghton Shahnameh is one of the most famous illustrated manuscripts of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran, and a high point in the art of the Persian miniature. It is probably the most fully illustrated manuscript of the text ever produced. When created, the manuscript contained 759 pages, 258 of which were miniatures. These miniatures were hand-painted by the artists of the imperial workshop in Tabriz under Shah Ismail I and Shah Tahmasp I. Upon its completion, the Shahnameh was gifted to the Ottoman Sultan Selim II in 1568. The page size is about 48 x 32 cm, and the text written in Nastaʿlīq script of the highest quality. The manuscript was broken up in the 1970s and the pages are now in a number of different collections around the world.