User:Smsm1370/Habibullah Fazaeli

Habibullah Fazaeli was born into a farmer's family in the Semirom county of Isfahan. From the early days of his childhood he showed a keen interest in calligraphy and his ambitions of becoming a calligraphist  were realized very early on.

Fazaeli was not satisfied with merely obtaining a primary level of education and moved on to attend Isfahan's religious schools. His thirst for knowledge did not stop there and he continued his path through teaching and learning by studying Persian literature at the University of Tehran and later at the University of Isfahan. He began teaching at schools and establishing and supervising Isfahan's calligrapher's community.

The history of his glorious works are numerous which began during his adolescence with the writing of Ubayd Zakani's 'Mush o-gorbeh' (mouse and cat) in hieroglyphics (Nasta'liq) accompanied with gilding and drawings of different scenes throughout.

The endeavor of an influx of Isfahan's artists in decorating Shia holy shrines in Iraq and other holy places facilitated the use of his handwriting on Al Abbas ibn Ali's (as) shrine, numerous doors of Imam Ali(as) and Imam Hussein's(as)  shrines, as well as holy shrines in Damascus, Kadhimiya, Samarra and Mashhad. His first inscription in Thuluth was for Imam Hadi (as).

The rapid deterioration  of domestic and native lettering in Turkey, made the late master Fazaeli begin to  attend to the mission of saving the history of handwriting and calligraphy in Iran as much as he could.

The result of which is the unique and meticulous collections of 20 years worth of research comprised in his book of 'Atlas e-khat' (1352).

After an additional 5 years of great effort, the book of Teaching Handwriting (1356) was written and made ready for distribution. Other published works include:

Sarmashgh -haye  boostan -e khat (1359)

Chalipa -ye nasta'ligh (1372)

Dastan -e ashab -e ros (1363) about the companions of Ros. (story in the holy  Quran)

Mard afarin -e rouzegar (1368) about Zainab bint Ali (sa)

Ganjinatol asrar(1363) research and poems of the late Amman Samani about the event of Karbala

Ayeh -ye Noor(1369) an interpretation of the Noor Surah and verse.

Great demand in Iran led to the writing of a Quran that, whilst the reading of which was made simple for Iranian readers, was without any mistakes of fault that could cause other sects of Islam to consider its credibility limited.

This Quran is written in Naskh with the head of each Surah written in Thuluth and is published by Soroush Publications (1366)

Fazaeli's poems are uniquely written in the form of a handwritten book that hasn't been printed yet so it gives a more personal, unmanufactured feel to the poems.

His unique artistic handwriting characteristics stemmed from the fact that he has mastered  Thuluth, Nasta'liq, broken Nasta'liq, Naskh, Reyhan, Muhaqqaq, Kufic and Riqa' inscriptions and letterings all at the same level.

Habibullah Fazaeli passed away on the 12th of Aban 1376, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hadi (as), who is also the subject of the very first inscription by Fazaeli.