SANG-E-MEEL has published a large, colourful and ornate volume with Quranic verses and couplets from Hafiz and Jami, calligraphed by a great calligraphist of our times, Khursheed Alam Gauhar Qalam. The work has been presented under the title Calligraphy: Gauhar Qalam.

Calligraphy has evolved and developed into an art form that stands distinguished as a non-representational art form in direct contrast to different representational forms associated with different religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.

As a matter of fact, religion in general has seen no harm in carving out idols and drawing pictures of living beings, be they humans or non-humans, and then installing them in temples and churches. In ancient India, Buddha was the first to be honoured by moulding an idol in his name. The Hindus took cue and started carving out idols of their gods and goddesses. Such was the start of idolatry in India.

However, Islam stood against carving statues or making picture of living beings. Idolatry is banned under its code. But how correct was Ghalib in his perception:

The Muslims’ creative genius discovered for its benefit an alternative way of expression. It developed a love, a deep devotion, for the word of God, and felt the urge to chant and write Quranic verses. “The proscription of images,” writes Abdul Jabbar Danner, who has discussed Islamic arts in his books, “gave impetus to the cultivation of the arts immediately associated with the reading, writing, and cantillation of the Quran. Alongside mosque architecture, the calligraphy of Islam is the other sacred art in the tradition having celestial backing.”

So the origins of calligraphy can be traced back to the very early years of Islam. Hazrat Ali appears distinguished among those early calligraphers. Calligraphy soon came to stay as a devotional art with its roots in the sacred words of the Quran. With the passage of time it grew and spread in the vast expanse of the Muslim World. In the course of its expansion it developed manifold styles of writing such as the Khat-i-Kufi, the Khat-i-Tughra and the Khat-i-Mushajjar, and touched the heights of art. It now appeared to be entering the hallowed circle of fine arts.

During the past centuries the developing tradition of calligraphy brought out a number of talented calligraphists in different Muslim countries who, with their brilliant achievements, added to the richness of the calligraphic tradition. However, the scholar quoted above says while keeping the Turks, the Persians, and the Indian Muslims in view, “we can discern peak moments in their artistic handling of the calligraphic and architectural arts of Islam … but a certain decadence begins to intrude itself shortly before the coming of the modern western civilisation in the 19th and 20th centuries.”

However, in the case of Indian Muslims (later to be known as Pak-Indian Muslims) we can see that even after the decadence perceived by the esteemed scholar, the calligraphic tradition went on flourishing with the continual emergence of eminent calligraphists adding, by their works, to its richness. We can see this in the case of the calligraphist under discussion. Khursheed Alam Gauhar Qalam was born in 1956, well after the emergence of Pakistan. With his deep interest in calligraphy he took lessons from the great master of his time, Hafiz Mohammed Yousuf Sadeedi. He showed the promise of growing up into a great calligraphist and soon demonstrated his worth in this field. He gained expertise in a number of styles, namely Nastaleeq, Naskh, Thuluth and Tughra etcetera. And soon he became a great master of this art.

A number of distinguished mosques and mausoleums are indebted to him for beautiful calligraphy on their walls, roofs and minarets. And he was honoured with a number of awards for his services to this sacred tradition. The present volume is the third in the series comprising Quranic verses along with a sprinkling of Persian poetry by Hafiz, Jami and Iqbal. Here he is seen calligraphing them in different styles, Thuluth, Tughra, Nastaleeq, Naskh and Mushajjar. In the case of each style, his handling is masterly