
Show HN: Persian poem illustrator (weekend project) - saman_b
http://samanbarghi.com/sher-negar/#/
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contingencies
Cool. I often eat in Tamil Muslim restaurant here in Bangkok with an eclectic
collection of no-doubt Farsi tradition derived geometric calligraphic pieces.
However, some of them seem to place very little weight on the calligraphic
side and more on the geometric side. I am curious as to whether you know of
any kind of semi-holistic study of geometric patterns used for illustrating
either Quran or free-prose / poetic pieces and whether there is any
traditionally prescribed relationship (I assume there is) between the
geometries chosen and the nature of the subject.

It seems almost as if some pieces here are inspired by a popular Thai love of
'magical' wards rather than anything remotely connected to Islamic traditions
... generally with a strong showing of circles ringing a Pascalesque triangle
and inscriptions in Pali written in Khmer (Cambodian) script and probably have
nothing to do with Mughul or Persian traditions. In the same vein as, for
example, the _hamsa_ / hand of Fatima in Maghreb countries.

Incidentally, there's a Chinese/Arabic calligraphic tradition that's dying out
that you may be interested in. It takes either Arabic or the relatively line-
heavy, complex Chinese characters and applies traditional Islamic (probably in
no small part Persian) styles to their interweaving. A not so great example
online that I shot previously...
[http://pratyeka.org/ennin/2006-05-10-huaian/](http://pratyeka.org/ennin/2006-05-10-huaian/)
(part of the retracing of a Japanese Buddhist monk's journey through China
1000 years ago I did half of, years ago, with a crazy American) or
[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nYF7e1Kd9sE/Tj6mau7h8uI/AAAAAAAAAE...](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nYF7e1Kd9sE/Tj6mau7h8uI/AAAAAAAAAEM/3mFQBtaMgXs/s1600/453_Shep_9780823033461.jpg)

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saman_b
Nice, it would be nice to see those pieces. I guess you are looking to study
arabesque
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesque_(Islamic_art)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesque_\(Islamic_art\)),
which includes calligraphy and patterns.

"In the first mode, each repeating geometric form has a built-in symbolism
ascribed to it. For example, the square, with its four equilateral sides, is
symbolic of the equally important elements of nature: earth, air, fire and
water. Without any one of the four, the physical world, represented by a
circle that inscribes the square, would collapse upon itself and cease to
exist..."

I have limited knowledge on the topic to be honest, you might find this one
related though: [http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-
Architecture-650-1250-Richard-...](http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-
Architecture-650-1250-Richard-Ettinghausen/dp/0300088698)

I used the digital canvas as a medium to project what I had in mind with added
randomness to make it dynamic. Although the persian/islamic art, I was exposed
to in childhood and teenage-hood, helped me with the idea but I was not trying
to connect it to any particular known art. It would be great if you can
provide some pointers to both Pali and Thai scripts/art, so I can study them
and probably expand the project on them. I had some other ideas for the
project, but unfortunately since arabic/persian fonts cannot handle spaces and
words becomes a series of disconnected letters I could not fully implement
them. e.g. I cannot make verses follow a specific path due to that problem.

Wow those pictures are really interesting, specially the first one. I have
seen how they do this with Chinese calligraphy but seeing the Arabic
calligraphy is surprising. Thanks for sharing :) I am sure you had fun taking
those shots.

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contingencies
I can provide photos of the restaurant pieces in a day or two... maybe send me
an email? Thanks for the leads. I think what I really was looking for was a
pan-traditional typology with semantic notes... maybe it doesn't exist, and
your project can become one? If so I'm interested to help.

I just found
[http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7969063/Persian_and_Arabic_Ca...](http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7969063/Persian_and_Arabic_Calligraphy_Book_Collection_Part_1)
which looks promising.

Pali is the scriptural language of Theravada Buddhism, which dominates
Burma/Laos/Cambodia/Thailand/Sri Lanka. The Tai regions (eastern and
historically northern Burma/far southern China/Laos/Thailand, bits of Vietnam,
historically part of eastern India) used to have some geometries related to
calendrical systems, some of which my former associate wrote up over here:
[http://pali.pratyeka.org/#Five](http://pali.pratyeka.org/#Five) (that page
also has good explanations of basics).. you can see some related images I have
shot in southern China at
[https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/...](https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/5024533201130666017)
.. and for the magical ward populist stuff in Thailand
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra_tattooing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra_tattooing)
and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatha)
.. I also have a good deal of Berber patterns recorded from Doiret, Tunisia at
[https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/...](https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/5560650525927120961)

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saman_b
That would be great, my email is: saman<dot>b<at>gmail<dot>com. I am not aware
of such collection, and sure I would be happy to collaborate with you and
expand on this.

That sounds like a promising collection.

Thanks for the pointers. But wow, the Thai magical ward shapes matches my
mental image! In an older version of this project with PHP, I even had the
same idea as spire shaped verses! I need to find more resources on this. This
is really interesting, thanks a lot. The calendrical system looks nice too.
You got a great photo collection :) Although the last pointer points to
another album I guess? I can't find any Berber patterns and it is pointing to
Tattouine photos instead of Doiret.

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aminbandali
Nice project :) The Nastaliq is displaying fine but with Nazanin font,
characters are not connected and are displayed incorrectly. Chrome
35.0.1916.153 under OS X Mavericks.

Also, any plans on publishing the source?

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saman_b
Thanks for letting me know, I tested it on chrome and firefox under Linux mint
and Nazanin shows up correctly, I have to lay my hands on a Mac then.

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aliniki
But looks OK on Safari (OS X 10.9)

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kapitalx
Love the idea. Looks great.

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saman_b
Thanks :)

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smortaz
this is beautiful! damet garm ;)

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saman_b
Thanks man, same for you :)

