Mirza Gholamreza Esfahani: The Calligrapher Who Sought Help from Imam Ali (AS)

Mirza Gholamreza Isfahani, one of the renowned prodigies of calligraphy during the Qajar era, was born in 1246 AH into a middle-class family in Isfahan. His father, Mirza Jan, worked as a confectioner,and because he had several daughters but no sons, he undertook a pilgrimage to Imam Ali ibn Musa al-Reza (peace be upon him). After seeking the Imam’s intercession, God granted him a son. For this reason, they named their son Gholamreza. At the age of five, Gholamreza began attending a maktab (traditional Islamic school), and after two years, he was able to read the Qur’an. As he himself wrote in a masterfully penned piece in Shekasteh script, at the age of seven, he dreamed of appearing before Imam Ali (peace be upon him), who encouraged him to begin writing the letters Alef and Lam. The next day, when Mirza explained his dream to his teacher, the teacher encouraged him to begin learning calligraphy. From his early teenage years, Mirza Gholamreza wrote with great strength and precision, following the Mir Emad style , Mir Saeed Ali Hakkak, who himself was influenced by the Mir Emad style. Drawing inspiration from the Mir Emad school, Mirza Gholamreza firmly established the foundation of his own calligraphic work. The works from Mirza’s childhood and youth largely reflect the style of his master. From the few surviving pieces from his early years, it appears that he strove to follow the calligraphic style of Mir Emad’s later years. Although Mirza’s childhood and adolescent writings do not possess the beauty and maturity of his later works, they are technically strong and well-structured and his calligraphy reached a level of mastery between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five.

As Mo‘tazeddole Mehran writes, Mirza Gholamreza caught the attention of Mohammad Shah Qajar at the age of seven, and four years later, he received a certificate of outstanding calligraphy (calligraphic distinction) from this Qajar king. In his second decade of life, Mirza Gholamreza attained mastery in Nasta‘liq script and, by teaching princes, officials, and the children of notable figures of the Qajar era, established himself as one of the prominent calligraphers of his time. Finding his way to the Qajar court, and especially to the royal library, was an exceptionally valuable experience—one that few calligraphers, especially at a young age, were granted. Mirza, equipped with a rich foundation in theoretical practice, studied in depth  the works of renowned predecessors in the history of calligraphy, particularly Mir Emad. By observing their rare works preserved in the royal library, he developed a deep understanding and appreciation of the pure and authentic art of calligraphy. Perhaps this is why Mirza Gholamreza maintained and extended Mir Emad’s style for many years.

Siah-Mashq Calligraphy
Siah-Mashq calligraphy is an experience that few calligraphers of Mirza Gholamreza’s contemporaries or predecessors had the opportunity to pursue. However, he held a strong belief in practicing black-pen writing (Siah-Qalam)  writing and regarded it as a field for creating innovative calligraphic experiments. Mirza Gholamreza’s particular interest in Siah-Mashq and in discovering novel compositions within the light and dark spaces of Nasta‘liq letters led to the fact that most of his works include a variety of Siah-Mashq pieces in different sizes and scripts. Around 1280 AH (circa 1863 CE) , when Mirza was about 45 years old, he reached a stage of maturity and mastery in the geometric structure of calligraphy, and created a new and abstract style in his Siyah-Mashq (black practice sheets). In this style, the literary aspect was either diminished or entirely omitted, while the composition, integration, and arrangement of letters and words could be observed along a spectrum—from complete harmony to total intertwinement. The discovery of this potential in the Nastaʿliq script — a script that has always possessed a systematic structure and been based on defined rules- Represents a unique innovation. No similar example can be found from the period of Siah-Mashq creation, which started in the Safavid era, up to Mirza Gholamreza’s time. Mirza Gholamreza is the calligrapher who gave Siah-Mashq an independent identity.

Shikasteh Calligraphy
According to many calligraphy scholars, from the year 1284 AH, Mirza Gholamreza began professional practice and study by imitating the works of the renowned calligrapher Darvish Abdulmajid Taleqani. Evidence of this is a piece written in bold script (Danq Jali) by Mirza, in which he wrote: “The difficult words of Shikasteh will turn out well. Well-wishers advise me; striking bricks into the sea is futile.”Professional practice in Shikasteh script-.The professional practice in the Shikasta (cursive) scripts, pursued with the aim of attaining mastery in them—a skill rarely found among other Nastaʿliq calligraphers—had a profound influence on Mirza’s calligraphic style. Accordingly, between 1284 and 1294 AH, the sharp and slender letters of Mir Emad gradually gave way to fuller, more robust letters and words, influenced in large part by Shikasteh elements. In the Nasta‘liq works from the final years of Mirza Gholamreza’s life, many features of Shikasteh script can be clearly observed. Thus, it can be said that Mirza Gholamreza’s highly distinctive calligraphic style is the result of three evolutionary processes:

a) Drawing inspiration from Mir Emad’s script as the main foundation

b) Creation of pure and authentic aesthetic elements through Siyah-Mashq calligraphy
c) Influence of Shikasteh Nasta‘liq on Mirza’s handwriting

This experiential and transformative process in calligraphy did not exist in this form in any other calligrapher’s work; therefore, Mirza Gholamreza’s style is significantly distinct from other calligraphers. Mirza Gholamreza should rightfully be considered the originator of a new style in Nasta‘liq, a style that underwent a highly complex and unique evolutionary process, representing the intersection of interwoven Shikasteh Nasta‘liq, Siyah-Mashq, and Mir Emad’s Nasta‘liq. In his own style, Mirza selected the purest aesthetic elements from each of the three aforementioned scripts. Mirza Gholamreza writes Shikasteh Nasta‘liq, especially the Jeli (large-scale) forms of this script, with exceptional mastery—sometimes even better than Darvish Abdolmajid. The reason for this may be his complete mastery of the individual words of the parent script, Nasta‘liq, as well as his fondness for Jeli writing and inscriptional calligraphy—a quality that is unparalleled among other Shikasteh calligraphers. From observing Mirza’s Jeli Shikasteh pieces, it is fully evident that he possessed a very strong and rich foundation in Nasta‘liq, and at times, in some of his works, he compensated for certain aesthetic shortcomings of Shikasteh script with the solidity of Nasta‘liq. Mirza Gholamreza often signed his works with the phrase “Ya Ali Madad”, and in the history of Iranian calligraphy, he is among the rare calligraphers who achieved masterful stature in both Nasta‘liq and Shikasteh scripts. Artworks Created by Mirza Gholamreza Esfahani Among the artistic works of Mirza Gholamreza Esfahani, one can mention:

• Resaleh Tohfeh al-Vozara (Treatise of the Ministers)
• A treatise on Sufi terminology
• Golestan of Saadi in Shikasteh script
• Safarname of Hajj Sayaah (Travelogue)
• 298 pages of Biyaz (practice or blank sheets) 
• Calligraphy inscriptions of Sepahsalar School, Baharestan Square, Tehran
• …and others.