Mishkin Qalam: The Official زندگی‌نامه

Master calligrapher, poet, astronomer, and mystic of 19th-century Persia, and creator of the calligraphic design of the Greatest Name used by Bahá’ís worldwide.

Mishkín-Qalam (1824–1912), a title meaning “The Musk-scented Jet-Black Pen,” was one of the foremost calligraphers of 19th-century Persia. Born Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Isfahání, he rose from a chance encounter in a Tehran bazaar to a post at the royal court, then gave up that comfortable life for his beliefs in unity of humankind. His devotion cost him arrest, nine years of imprisonment in Cyprus, and a lifetime of exile, yet he never stopped creating. His rendering of the Greatest Name is still used by Bahá’ís around the world, and his work hangs today in collections including the Harvard Art Museums.

نخست‌وزیر از نقاشی‌های باشکوه مشکین‌قلم چنان تحت تأثیر قرار گرفت که او را به حضور ناصرالدین شاه قاجار، پادشاه ایران، معرفی کرد. شاه عنوان “مشکین‌قلم” را به او داد و او را به‌عنوان معلم ولیعهد منصوب کرد. پس از مدتی خدمت در دربار ایران و با کسب اجازه از وظایف سلطنتی خود برای دیدار خانواده‌اش در شهری دیگر، میسکین‌قلم با مسافری مواجه شد که از آمدن یک نور معنوی بزرگ به نام بهاءالله، که تعالیمش بر محور وحدت تمام بشریت بود، به او خبر داد. مشکین‌قلم بلافاصله این پیام را پذیرفت.

با وجود نیم قرن اسارت در امپراتوری عثمانی به دلیل اعتقادات بهائی‌اش، او در سه قاره مختلف زندگی کرد و اثری با زیبایی چشمگیر خلق نمود که نمونه‌هایی از آن امروزه در موزه‌های هنر هاروارد، موزه بریتانیا و مرکز جهانی بهائی در حیفا، اسرائیل دیده می‌شود. یکی از قابل تشخیص‌ترین تصاویر خلق شده توسط مشکین‌قلم در قالب‌های گوناگون، تصویری از خروسی است که با خوشنویسی عربی مزین شده و نماد سپیده‌دم دوران جدیدی از صلح و برادری جهانی است.

مشکین‌قلم که بود؟

Mishkín-Qalam was the leading calligrapher of Persia in his day, celebrated across the Persian world and beyond for a hand of extraordinary beauty and range. ʻAbdu’l-Bahá described him as a second Mír ʻImád, comparing him to the most famous Persian calligrapher of the Safavid age. He was also a poet, a skilled astronomer, and a noted mystic, and before becoming a Bahá’í he belonged to the Niʻmatu’lláhí Sufi order. He is best remembered for figural calligraphy, in which sacred phrases are shaped into living forms, most famously a rooster composed of Arabic letters that symbolises the dawn of a new day. His design of the invocation “Yá Baháʼu’l-Abhá“ became the calligraphic form of the Greatest Name recognised by Bahá’ís everywhere.

Early Life and Family

Mishkín-Qalam was born Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Isfahání in 1824, in Shiraz, in the province of Fars. His parents, Fatimih and Haji Muhammad ʻAliy-i-Isfahání, came from merchant families with roots in Shiraz, and the family was associated with Isfahan, where he received his early education. From childhood, he was drawn to the many styles of Persian calligraphy and painting. He married in Isfahan; his wife was Agha Bigum, and they had a daughter, Shah Bigum, and a son, Mirza Ali-Akbar.

Note: Although a small number of published sources have identified Isfahan as Mishkín-Qalam’s birthplace, the weight of historical evidence supports Shiraz. This conclusion is consistent with the research of Hasan M. Balyuzi and has been independently verified through the extensive archival research undertaken for this biography by documentary director and producer آرمان آرین. Accordingly, this biography identifies Shiraz as Mishkín-Qalam’s birthplace.

When Was Mishkín-Qalam Born?

The exact year of Mishkín-Qalam’s birth has never been fully settled. Published estimates range from about 1810 to 1826: the 1992 monograph on his art gives 1826, while a note in that same volume records a family account of 1810. This biography places his birth in 1824, a date drawn from works of his youth that he inscribed with his age beside his signature. Because the creation dates of those works are known, his year of birth can be calculated from them, and the result has been reviewed with historians.

The Fingernail Portrait That Changed His Life

When Mishkín-Qalam was about 25, his father died during a business trip to Tehran, and the young artist travelled to the capital to settle the family’s affairs. While sitting in the shop of a friend, he watched the Grand Vizier pass by in the regal dress of his office. A gifted artist even in his youth, Mishkín-Qalam sketched the minister’s likeness using nothing but the impression of his fingernail on paper, a feat he had perfected. He left the portrait with the shopkeeper and departed.

When the Grand Vizier passed the shop again, the shopkeeper showed him the drawing. The minister was so delighted, and so determined to meet its creator, that the shopkeeper searched until he found the young man and arranged an introduction. That meeting opened the door to the royal court and changed the course of Mishkín-Qalam’s life.

Service in the Persian Royal Court

The Grand Vizier presented Mishkín-Qalam at the royal court to Naser al-Din Shah, the ruler of Persia. Recognising the young man’s extraordinary talent, the Shah granted him the title by which he is still known, “Mishkín-Qalam,” and appointed him tutor to the Crown Prince in Tabriz. For several years he lived in Tabriz, teaching the Crown Prince and other members of the royal family, his reputation as a calligrapher now established at the highest level of the empire.

How Mishkín-Qalam Became a Bahá'í

During a journey home to visit his family in Isfahan, Mishkín-Qalam fell into conversation with a believer named Siyyid Mihdi, who first told him of the Bahá’í Faith and its founder, Bahá’u’lláh. The encounter moved him so deeply that, without informing the court or his family, he set out to find Bahá’u’lláh, who was then exiled in Adrianople, in Ottoman territory. On the way he stopped at Aleppo, where the governor, Jawdat Pasha, engaged him to tutor his children. It was in Aleppo that he met the celebrated Bahá’í teacher and historian Nabíl-i-Zarandí, who deepened his understanding of the new Faith.

Mishkín-Qalam then continued to Adrianople, where he entered the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and became one of his scribes. There he began to write out the invocation “Yá Baháʼu’l-Abhá,” the Greatest Name, in many forms, some shaped like birds, and it was his rendering of this phrase that became the design used by Bahá’ís to this day. He came to be counted among the nineteen Apostles of Bahá’u’lláh, a small circle of the Faith’s most devoted early followers, an allegiance that would shape, and gravely endanger, the rest of his life.

Constantinople, Arrest, and Exile to Cyprus

Bahá’u’lláh later directed Mishkín-Qalam to Constantinople (Istanbul), where his art quickly won the admiration of leading Persians and Turks, and where he taught the Bahá’í Faith openly. The Persian ambassador, alarmed, pressed the Ottoman authorities to act against him, portraying him as an agitator. He was arrested and sent to Gallipoli, arriving on 16 August 1868, a day before Bahá’u’lláh and his companions passed through on their way to exile in ʻAkká. When the exiles were assigned their destinations, Mishkín-Qalam and three other Bahá’ís were separated from the main party at Haifa and sent instead to Cyprus. From 1868 to 1877 he was held prisoner in the fortress of Famagusta.

Reunion in ʻAkká and the Years of Service

When Cyprus passed from Ottoman to British administration, Mishkín-Qalam was released, and in 1886 he was at last able to make his way to ʻAkká and rejoin Bahá’u’lláh. There he devoted himself to transcribing the Bahá’í writings and to creating works of art, described by those who knew him as a man of constant good cheer and quick wit. He completed two volumes of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings, which were printed in Bombay, and he produced a celebrated copy of the Hidden Words in his own hand.

After Bahá’u’lláh passed away in 1892, Mishkín-Qalam continued his services under ʻAbdu’l-Bahá. In 1905 he was sent to India to assist with Bahá’í publishing, and he remained there until illness led ʻAbdu’l-Bahá to invite him back to the Holy Land, where he spent his final years. Across his life his exile carried him through three continents, from Persia and the Ottoman lands of Asia to Cyprus in Europe and, in his later travels, to Africa.

A Master of Calligraphy

Mishkín-Qalam commanded every major style of Persian and Arabic calligraphy, including nasta’líq, naskh, and shikastih, and he sometimes combined several styles in a single work; one surviving masterpiece renders verses of Bahá’u’lláh in seven principal scripts. He also mastered mirror script and the tradition of figural calligraphy, shaping sacred words into the forms of birds and other images. His most famous motif, the rooster, draws on an old Persian association of the bird with light and the herald of dawn, and stands for the daybreak of a new age. Annemarie Schimmel, the eminent scholar of Islamic calligraphy, counted him among the finest calligraphers of his era and traced his crisp, luminous hand to the tradition of the great Safavid master Mír ʻImád. He is also remembered as the first Bahá’í artist to use calligraphy and painting to express his religious convictions, and his influence can be seen in later masters of the art.

You can explore a curated selection of his work.

Timeline: The Life of Mishkín-Qalam

Death and Legacy

Mishkín-Qalam died on 6 December 1912 in ʻAkká and was buried near Bahji. Among his last works was the design of the calligraphic inscriptions carved on the marble sarcophagus, presented by the Bahá’ís of Burma, that holds the remains of the Báb. He left behind not only transcriptions of the Bahá’í writings but hundreds of calligraphic works that survive in Bahá’í archives, in Holy Places, in private homes, and in museums; his golden rooster is among the treasures of the Harvard Art Museums. Above all, his design of the Greatest Name endures as part of the daily visual life of the worldwide Bahá’í community, and later calligraphers continue to work in his shadow.

Where to See Mishkín-Qalam's Work Today

Mishkín-Qalam’s art survives in public institutions, in Bahá’í archives and Holy Places, and in private hands:

Harvard Art Museums (formerly the Arthur M. Sackler Museum), home to his golden rooster:
The British Museum:
The Bahá’í World Centre, Haifa, including the International Archives Building
The Mansion of Bahji, ʻAkká

Many of his finest pieces are privately owned and rarely seen in public. For this project, the documentary’s producers have visited a number of these private collections in person, and several works have now been documented for the first time. This first-hand access, together with the collection reproduced in the 1992 monograph on his art, makes this one of the most complete records of Mishkín-Qalam’s work gathered in one place.

For a curated selection with full provenance, sizes, and locations, visit the dedicated page on his Calligraphic Works.

Rafati, Vahid. 1992. Mishkín Qalam: XIX Century Artist and Calligrapher. Society for Persian Letters and Arts / Landegg Academy, Switzerland.