In this article, readers will be introduced to the contemporary Islamic calligrapher, Professor Rasoul Moradi.
Rasoul Moradi (born in 1955 in Mashhad) is an Iranian calligrapher. His works have been exhibited in more than 40 solo and group exhibitions in cities such as Mashhad, Tehran, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India, and Rabat. He has also won 4 awards at the Istanbul International Calligraphy Competitions (IRCICA) in Calligraphy and Nastaliq (1998) and Nastaliq Jali and Nastaliq (2001), an honorary diploma at the Grand Calligraphy Festival of Imam Ali Year, the first prize at the 8th Holy Quran Exhibition, and a selection at the Nawazish Qalam Festival.
He is also the author of several books on teaching Nastaliq and Shaskheta Nastaliq calligraphy, etc., and has written Persian literary works such as Rumi’s Masnavi and Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.
He completed his primary education in the village of Gitarak in Mashhad and his secondary education in Mashhad. After completing his secondary education in 1972, he entered Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and in 1976, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from that educational institution. Moradi was simultaneously engaged in learning and practicing the art of calligraphy and reached the rank of master in 2006.
In the 1960s, he attended correspondence courses with masters such as Gholamreza Mousavi and Mostafa Mehdizadeh for 2 years and then attended face-to-face sessions with Gholamhossein Amirkhani for 13 years, and went through the stages of calligraphy development. Moradi has a fluent and precise pen and exemplary skill in writing and composing Nastaliq.
Rasoul Moradi is the winner of the Appreciation Plate and the Artistic Book of the Year statue from the Ministry of Education and is a permanent representative of the Assembly of Representatives of the Iranian Calligraphers Association. He began his activity in the Iranian Calligraphers Association in 1982 and, while holding training classes, contributed to the establishment of the Kashmar Calligraphers Association in 1983.
This master says about his artistic activity: About 25 years ago, an Indian calligrapher named Ahrar Hindi, along with other friends who were his students, contacted me to teach Nastaliq. Of course, they knew me from the Istanbul International Calligraphy Competition “Irishika” where I had received 4 awards. I taught him, along with Mohammad Ferdows, Mohammad Arman, and Nowshad, for years; maybe for about 20, 15 years, in 2009 I was in India for a month, and in the two years before that I had another trip to India, where I had workshops and training in the cities of Ajmer, Tonk, Hyderabad, Delhi, etc., with the cooperation of the Iranian Cultural Counselor in Delhi, I held more than 12 workshops.
Nastaliq, which is common in India, is a distorted form known as Urdu script, but I have tried to promote pure Iranian Nastaliq in India in these years, which has had good results, but in my opinion, it is still not enough. It must continue, which is not enough with the efforts of an individual so far.
He also concluded by saying: The relevant organizations of the two countries should seriously pursue their cultural and artistic support along with the programs developed for this purpose.
Source: Islamic Alumni Association of the Indian Subcontinent