Nastaliq Calligraphy: The Beautiful Line
Qalam, ink, and 700 years of craft — write Urdu the way it deserves.
What you'll learn
- Cut and hold the qalam correctly (bamboo and modern pens both)
- Master the nuqta-based proportion system of Nastaliq
- Write all letterforms and their classic compounds
- Compose a complete sher as a finished calligraphy piece
- Understand the lineage: from Mir Ali Tabrizi to today
Course curriculum
3 modules · 12 lessons · 16 hours. Green lessons are free previews.
- The story of Nastaliq in ten minutesPreview12:00
- Qalam, ink, paper: your toolkitPreview18:00
- The dot: unit of all proportion16:00
- First strokes: the alif and the kashish22:00
- The be family — the foundational curve24:00
- Round letters: daal, re, waw21:00
- The swan letters: jeem, ain, and grace23:00
- Assignment: One page of letter drills30:00
- Joining with rhythm: words as shapes25:00
- Layout: writing a sher on the page22:00
- Assignment: Your final framed piece45:00
- Quiz: Theory & proportion12:00
About this course
Nastaliq — 'the bride of scripts' — is one of the world's great calligraphic traditions, and it is learnable. Prof. Hamid Kirmani, trained in the classical silsila, teaches the qalam grip, the proportional system of dots, and the letterforms stroke by stroke. You'll finish with a framed piece of your own: a sher, written beautifully, by your hand.
Requirements
- No experience needed
- Starter tools list provided (under ₹500)
Your teacher
Prof. Hamid Kirmani
Indo-Persian Literature & Calligraphy · AMU
Prof. Hamid Kirmani taught Persian at Aligarh Muslim University for two decades and trained in Nastaliq calligraphy under Ustad Khursheed Alam. He reads Rumi, Hafiz, and Saadi in the original and teaches them the traditional way — verse by verse, story by story. His calligraphy course carries a 700-year-old craft into your notebook, one stroke at a time.
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