“ALBUM OF (INSCRIBED) BEAUTY”

By: S. Amjad Ali
(Author of: “The Painters of Pakistan”, 

Director General: Film & Publication Ministry of Information Pakistan, 

Director: External Publicity Wing.)

 

That is the best translation I could do of the latest book of calligraphy by Ibn-e-Kaleem of Multan, “Muraqqa-e-Ra’anaee”. It is the most sumptuous book of its kind to be published in Pakistan.

          Those interested in the subject would know that Ibn-e-Kaleem is not only one of our leading calligraphers but a devoted missionary of this art, who has written six books on this subject.

          Born into a branch of the Langah family, he claims ancestors who have nurtured the art of calligraphy as an act of devotion, mainly to glorify the Quran. He got his initial training in the art from his father, Muhammad Hassan Khan Kaleem Raqam. It may be mentioned here that a copy of the Quran written by his father’s grandfather, Maulana Quaim-ud-din Langah is on display in the National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi.

          Everyone knows that through out our history, calligraphy has been the most honoured of the arts &also the most loved. Of course its primary purpose was to indite the holy word in beautiful & still more beautiful styles but it was such a deep source of aesthetic pleasure that it was used on every occasion & every article, from coins &aswords, guns & cannons, building inscriptions & graveyard headstones, personal & royal seals & farmaans or ordinances & even on the homely cloth spread on the ground to serve food (dastarkhan or safra).

          The high esteem in which it was held will be evident from two examples, one showing its value in the eyes of kings & the other in the common people. Shah Jehan, who was himself a master calligrapher, was such an admirer of the Persian Mir Imad-al-Husaini that if anyone brought a wasli (small panel) written by him, he was at once rewarded with a government post designated as a Centurion or Commander of a Hundred. In the world renowned Taj Mahal that he built in Agra & the Jamia Mosgue of Delhi, he allowed the name of the respective calligrapher who wrote the inscriptions for these two buildings, to be enshrined prominently, namely, Amanat Khan & Hafiz Noor-ullah, while the names of the architects still remain unknown &unrecorded.

          The esteem of this art among the common people can be judged by the fact that even in the so-called period of our decline, mid-19^th century, a single word or even a large letter was accepted as a currency note if written by Amir Muhammad Rizvi, better known as Mir Panja Khan, who died fighting in Delhi in the 1957 War of Independence.

          Pakistan has produced great calligraphers, such as Taj Zarrin Raqam, who died in the 50s, & Hafiz Sadeedi who died a few years ago & syed Anwar Hussain Nafees Raqam, who also died in the 1980s. It is far from my intention to belittle the achievements of these masters but the contribution of Ibn-e-Kaleem is remarkable for two reasons. He is not only a Khattat-e-Haft Qalam (Master of the Seven Pens) but has invented a new style which has been well named “Khat-e-Ra’ana”, this he achieved in 1973 at the early age of 27.

          For the last twenty years he has been creating panels & ingenious compositions (in the form of Tughras or To-am mirror reflections & much else) and now he has come up with a huge album in which he has printed a variety of his writings showing the endless possibilities of this style.

Front Title page of the Subject Book

          This book has been beautifully printed on thick white & yellow paper in his own press, hard bound, with coloured title page, size 8 ½ X 11 ½ inches, 178 pages, price Rs. 2000.

          His own introductory chapter & various other articles scattered between the pages of calligraphy add to our knowledge and pleasure but the same cannot be said about the numerous long & short testimonials with which it is heavily larded, quite unnecessarily, because the calligraphy speaks for itself. However, it shows that this new style has won wide acclaim. This achievement is historic because it is in centuries that a new style of calligraphy is invented.

          To invent a new style of calligraphy is not to draw words & letters freehand, guided only by balance & proportion, but to lay down rules for writing every letter & every combination of letters according to the age-old measurement of Nuqaat or dots. Because Ibn-e-Kaleem is the only person who has worked out these rules in full detail, he alone can claim to have invented a new style. All this & much more the reader will find to inform & delight him on the pages of “Muraqqa-e-Ra’anaee”, which I would prefer to call “Muraqqa-e-Ra’ana”, because it is more appropriate for the contents of the book & the meaning is the same – An Album of (Calligraphic) beauty.