A Reflection on the Design of the First Nasta'liq Typeface Attributed to Charles Wilkins in the Gladwins a Compendious Vocabulary (1192 AH / 1780 AD)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant professor, Graphic Design and Illustration Department. Visual Arts Faculty, University of Art, Tehran, Iran, Corresponding Author.

2 Assistant professor, Architecture Department, Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

 
The font that is attributed to Charles Wilkins, a British orientalist in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, is the first attempt to overcome the limitations of designing the Nasta'liq typeset. One way to understand these measures is to compare the print with the calligraphy. For this purpose, in this study, the printed calligraphy of Francis Gladwins “A Compendious Vocabulary English and Persian (1192 / 1780)”, the first book of Nastaliq lead printing by Wilkins, is compared with a textbook in the handwriting of Obaidullah Hosseini Shirin-Raqam, which was published at the end of a book published by Wilkins entitled “A Grammar of the Hindustani Language (London, 1242 / 1826)”. This comparison is made in three separate sections including words, letter combination, and script composition.
Nasta'liq calligraphy has features that are very difficult to use in printing with movable type; for example, micro-letters are usually placed at very close distances or stacked on top of each other to make words. Also, sometimes in composition, some uppercase and lowercase letters are placed on top of each other. These features make it not easy to build units of letters to fit together in a row structure. Thus, Wilkins' attempt to make lead letters for printing this script is significant in that it shows what changes printers have made to align this script with the limitations of printing with movable type; so that they can form and combine letters and overcome these limitations. This study seeks to answer the question of “how the designers of the Nasta'liq font attributed to Wilkins changed and adapted the Nasta'liq writing to become a printed font?”. In order to answer this question, in the first part of this article, the life and works of Charles Wilkins are discussed, and then the font of the first printed book with Nasta'liq font attributed to Wilkins “Gladwin English and Persian Dictionary (Malda, 1194 AH / 1780 AD)”, is compared with the examples of Nasta'liq calligraphy in three separate sections including words, letter combination, and script combination. Obviously, the calligraphy reference for this comparison should be the closest work to the time and place of Wilkins' activity. As a result, the only work available to the authors of the book is a calligraphy in Nasta'liq script by Obaidullāh Hosseini Shirin-Rogham, 11th and 12th century calligrapher, which was printed by metal, acid or etching at the end of the Indian grammar book by Charles Wilkins in 1242 AH / 1826 AD. It is thought that in terms of style and method of writing, he was close to his sources in designing and producing Nasta’liq font. The result is a list of changes and adaptations made by Wilkins et al. To convert the cursive to print font.
This research is descriptive in terms of method and applied in terms of purpose. The collected information is evaluated and analyzed qualitatively and with logical reasoning through comparison. Library data sources (articles, books, digital archives, and typewritten books) and field observation methods were used to collect data. The research findings are based on a comparison of the research data in order to identify the visual features of the Nasta'liq font attributed to Wilkins and the differences with the written samples.
In the font attributed to Wilkins, as the first Nasta'liq font in India, changes were made both in the shape of the letters and in the composition of the letters as well as the composition of the words. In the singular forms of this font, in order to distinguish the letters into individual shapes that can be printed in lead style, some common forms in Nasta'liq script have been removed and simpler instances for printing in Nasta'liq script have been kept. For example, the letter "هـ" and the letter "م". The limitation of letter shapes has caused some letters to be used in positions that were not common in Nasta'liq font. Due to the fact that it is not possible to place the letters side by side with the adjacent rectangular units, the font has been changed so that these letters are in a horizontal direction along each other. In addition, changes have been made, for example, to the letter "م" in order to create a vertical border between adjacent letters that connects the letters.
In letter composition, the various ways of connecting letters are limited and abbreviated; for example, thinning "بـ" and "ـبـ" and similar letters in order to better connect to the next letters. Creating a fixed unit for double and multiple letters is another trick to match the Nasta'liq font with the handwriting; for example, in the combinations of "چا", "الله", "سا", "کا", "ما", "لا", "ها", "یا" and "علا"
There are also significant differences in line compositions. For example, due to printing restrictions, the spacing of words and lines in the printed font has become very large. The common rule in Nasta'liq writing is that the distance between adjacent letters and words should not be more than 1 to 1.5 dots, while in the studied font the distance between the words is between 4 to 6 dots and sometimes more. In addition, at the end of the lines, the last words of the line are often superimposed for the coherence of the composition, while this feature is not seen in the printed font. The printed font, neglecting the aesthetic principles of the Nasta'liq script, is placed directly on a completely straight baseline. While in Nasta'liq, the writing of the baseline is circular, so that the beginning and end words of the line are slightly higher than the middle words.
In general, it can be said that due to many limitations of this technique and on the other hand due to the variety of forms and specific methods of combining the letters in Nasta'liq, the conversion of Nasta'liq script to the font based on the composition system causes the loss of some important aesthetic aspects of the script. This is not very noticeable in the singular forms, but it plays an essential role in combining the script and the overall image of the page which is created based on the relationships of the words and their spacing, and greatly reduces the beauty of the script. Although these changes have led to a conversion of the Nasta'liq script into a printed font, but the beauty and elegance of the Nasta'liq script have been eliminated completely. Perhaps this is why in Iran, unlike India, Egypt and the Ottoman lands, no attempt was ever made to use Nasta'liq in printing with movable type.
 
 
 

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References

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