# Persian, Urdu: Learning Nastaliq



## lafz_puchnevala

Hi All,

I have decided to take the big step of learning to read and write Urdu as part of my effort to better appreciate both the languages Hindi and Urdu. Would any one have a good source from which I can learn the script step by step? It would be better if there are any sources where a learner can learn Nastaliq based on his knowledge of Devanagari with regard to the sounds. 

I have heard that learning Nastaliq is much harder than learning Devanagari so any advice from you guys would be very helpful.

Thanks!


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## flyinfishjoe

There's a book called _Urdu Through Hindi: Nastaliq With the Help of Devanagari _by Prof. Afroz Taj and published by Rangmahal Press of New Delhi that may be of interest to you. I have neither used this book nor do I know if it's even still in print, but you might want to considering trying to find it.


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## Qureshpor

I feel that NCERT books would prove to be very useful, once you get recognition of basic words through Devanagri.

*http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/*

This is a good multilingual keyboard for typing Urdu.

http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/urdu.htm


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> This is a good multilingual keyboard for typing Urdu.
> 
> http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/urdu.htm


I find it very useful for people departing from the perspective of Nagari. Good find, QP SaaHib, I hope it will be appreciated by the learners. A thing to be noted is ژ  represented by jha with a subscript dot - very good.


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## omlick

"Teach Yourself Urdu Script"  is acceptable


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## Qureshpor

omlick said:


> "Teach Yourself Urdu Script"  is acceptable


Do you mean this book is of fairly good quality for learning the Urdu script?


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## Alfaaz

The following might be helpful in seeing the order of strokes/hand movements: here (pages 83 and 84) and here (pages 11, 12, 89). Unfortunately, a lot of material doesn't seem to be available online (for free), so these were some of the better examples. This could also be helpful to see how the ح would be written between the ص and ب , especially in Nasta'liq as Aryamp has pointed out above. You could also probably find videos on YT.


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## Daffodil100

Hello,

My textbook introduces handwriting of Persian letters. I guess it is named Nasta'liq, after I did some  online research. Please confrim.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Persian/Persian_Handwriting

Do most Iranians write Persian in Nasta'liq font? Almost all letters in that writing are very strange to me. If yes, I think I must learn to how to identify those letters at least.

Thank you!


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## Treaty

Yes. Most Iranians write in some form of Nasta'liq in their handwriting. However, the picture in the page is Urdu not Persian where a few letters differ.


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## Daffodil100

Thank you for your reply.

Do you or anyone else can advise how to find the video or flash about learning Nasta'liq?

What key words? I tried many key words i.e. farsi handwriting, nasta'liq, etc. but I found most of them are about calligraphy from Youtube.


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## bahman3d

I'm Iranian, but we don't mostly write or type in Nasta'liq. We could write with most of Arabic based calligraphy styles (naskh, thulth, etc). Nasta'liq is the most advanced and elegant writing style in arabic script and it's not that easy to learn. If your primal goal is to learn Persian, you don't have to learn Nasta'liq at first. You should start to learn Naskh style, also most of the persians (and arabic world) are accustomed to arabic simplified which is simplified version of Naskh style. That's much easier to learn and more comprehensive.


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## marrish

Treaty said:


> Yes. Most Iranians write in some form of Nasta'liq in their handwriting. However, the picture in the page is Urdu not Persian where a few letters differ.


 You are right. Strange how they uploaded Urdu for ''Persian Handwriting"!


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## Daffodil100

View attachment 11913

Hello, please see the attached picture which I took from my textbook. I almost cannot identify any letters. What is the font?

Also please see this picture http://forum.wordreference.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11835&d=1369867379

Are they same font?


Thank you!


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## Treaty

Daffodil100 said:


> Hello, please see the attached picture which I took from my textbook. I almost cannot identify any letters. What is the font?
> Also please see this picture http://forum.wordreference.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11835&d=1369867379
> Are they same font?
> 
> Thank you!



Both of them are Nasta'liq. The first image is the simple Nasta'liq font (it resembles that of calligraphy pens with varying thickness in curves) and the second is pen-written (personalised and with same thickness in all curves).


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## Aryamp

Daffodil100 said:


> View attachment 11913
> 
> Hello, please see the attached picture which I took from my textbook. I almost cannot identify any letters. What is the font?
> 
> Also please see this picture http://forum.wordreference.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11835&d=1369867379
> 
> Are they same font?
> 
> 
> Thank you!



They're related but not exactly the same. Here are two very amazing example of the two most common writing styles people use :

http://dl.sayebouni.com/all/sayebouni/khat/garsia1.jpg << This is a Nastaliq _tahriri _style (t_o distinguish it from the calligraphy work done by broad tip reed pen) _The first pic 00000.JPG resembles this style however the version employed in calligraphy with broad tip.


http://dl.sayebouni.com/all/sayebouni/khat/hossein1.jpg << this is called "shekaste" style and it's very similar to Nastaliq but with a few differences (employed by the writer in your second link) 


Note that not everybody can write as beautiful as these examples which I consider to be almost perfect, but still people strive to write like that , many people follow the principles of Nastaliq script but there are variations and often people mix different styles and so it's also a very personal thing. 

We all start learning to write following Naskh style which is the same script used in computer : این نسخ است but then gradually we shift towards a nastaliq style , still how people develop their writing from there depends on a personal choice and there are many personal varieties really.


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## Daffodil100

Thank you very much for all of your replies. 

Is there any suggestion for me to identify those letters, or words in these fonts? If I am very familiar with Naskh, it is possible for me to read them-handwriting?


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## Aryamp

I think you should first become very comfortable with reading Naskh before moving on to other styles of writing. It's always very difficult to read the handwriting of native speakers (of any language) and what actually helps a lot with reading even the most messy handwriting is the knowledge and dominance of the language that enables one to read a word even without identifying each separate letter.

Unfortunately I can't find any websites for teaching "nastaliq tahriri" to non-Persians. All the websites are for Iranians who want to improve their handwriting. 

Maybe this website will help you , though it's all written in Persian, but still it provides instructive photos for each letter with many examples so you can learn a lot by just studying the given illustration of how letters are written separately then in combination with other letters in a word : 

http://www.honarabad.com/آموزش-خط-تحریری-با-خودکار.html


In that page you can find the lessons are in red font under the title : *آموزش خط تحریری با خودکار* This is the first lesson : جلسه اول آموزش خط تحریری با خودکار ، مداد و قلم


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## Daffodil100

Thank you very much for helping me with my question always with great efforts. I should take the advice of yours all. I will put handwriting at the back burner. Have a good one!


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## OrlanAhmad

Hi everybody! 

My name is Ahmad, I am spain-dominican and I am trying to improve my urdu by learn as good as possible the script in order to read and write in nastaliq. I found useful some online resources but I am looking for something more; such as books or another resource.

I think a good way to learn a language is by understanding its scripture. I alrdy know the alphabets and I can read slowly but without problems.

I can understand a conversation, maybe at colloquial level, but I want a high one. I will be grateful if anyone of you can help me out!! 

Regards from dominican!!


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## Qureshpor

assalaamu 3alaikum Ahmad SaaHib. Welcome to the forum.

I shall provide you with a link or two. Hopefully these will satisfy your current needs. Please let me know if this is not what you had in mind.

http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/01glossaries/boyle/index.html


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## OrlanAhmad

Wa Alaikum Asalam Qureshpor SaaHib! Thanks very much, i am glad to be here. How are you brother? Insha Allah fine i hope; well first of all i have to apologize because of the late of my response, i was busy with finals.

Thank you very much for those links which i found very useful and, if you don't mind, i also have in mind to learn how to handwriting in nastaliq, maybe some book with english translation as well.

I do apologize again, Insha Allah, i will be grateful with any more information that you will provide to me, all the best, 

Ma'salam aur khuda hafiz!!


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## Qureshpor

^ You are most welcome. This might be of some use to you.

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/digpager.html?BOOKID=PK1983.N2_1999_V1&object=22


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## OrlanAhmad

Bohot bohot shukriya Qurespor SaaHib!! It is perfect for me by now!! Aur muje maaf kar do kyun ke me koi dhoondh nahi kar kya se apni links jo pehli waar diya tha mujhko!! If i did not good:

I was trying to say excuse me because i didn't search for it from the first time when you provided me the links!

Very grateful bhai!! 
(Please don't hesitate to correct me !!)
!! اسلام علیکم


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## Tumbistyle

Hello, I'm new here and trying to learn Urdu/Farsi.  I have seen many resources for reading but am really confused about writing the nastaliq script with a pen/pencil as I've not come across websites teaching how to write from the beginning.

What I'm confused about :

starting height of certain letters at the start of the word, or joining to the next letter and how slanted is it supposed to be.
Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks


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## Gope

Tumbistyle said:


> Hello, I'm new here and trying to learn Urdu/Farsi.  I have seen many resources for reading but am really confused about writing the nastaliq script with a pen/pencil as I've not come across websites teaching how to write from the beginning.
> 
> What I'm confused about :
> 
> starting height of certain letters at the start of the word, or joining to the next letter and how slanted is it supposed to be.
> Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks


Tumbistyle,
I can definitely help you here! Here's the book: Read and Write Urdu Script by Richard Delacy, a Teach Yourself Book available on Amazon.com. Try it. All my concerns were answered there.


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## Tumbistyle

Gope said:


> Tumbistyle,
> I can definitely help you here! Here's the book: Read and Write Urdu Script by Richard Delacy, a Teach Yourself Book available on Amazon.com. Try it. All my concerns were answered there.



 I do have Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script by the same author from 2003.  I'll check out the one you mentioned as well. Thanks for the help.


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## Gope

Tumbistyle said:


> I do have Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script by the same author from 2003.  I'll check out the one you mentioned as well. Thanks for the help.


The one I have is titled READ AND WRITE URDU SCRIPT, 2010 edition,  published by Hachette as a Teach Yourself book.


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## Tumbistyle

Gope said:


> The one I have is titled READ AND WRITE URDU SCRIPT, 2010 edition,  published by Hachette as a Teach Yourself book.


Thanks, I think my library has it and will try to get a hold of it.  I wonder if it is ok to open a thread regarding any questions about the script here.  That would be quite helpful in sorting out any confusion.  

cheers


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## lalsingh

Got a lot of options for learning Nastaliq. 

1. Nuqteh Vol 1 and 2 by Ali Rouhfar (For Persian)
- Cover the proportions (height, length, etc), stroke orders and directions, and overall rules of the script. The second volume goes into the more artsy stuff like elongated strokes and flourishes. Goes over how to make a reed pen and all the technical bits as well.

2. Khate Nastalighe Tahriri (4 jeldi) by Reza Tabrizi (for Persian)
- 4 volumes on the tahriri version of Persian nastaliq. 

3. Urdu Script, Reading and Writing by Omkar Koul (for Urdu)
- Whole book is handwritten I think. Which is nifty. Has a vocabulary list at the back. 

4. Urdu Kaise Likhen (Comes with an activity book) by Gopi Chand Narang (for Urdu)
- This one is written in Hindi. Comes with an activity book. 

5. Urdu Script and Vocabulary by Ashok Koul (for Urdu)

6 Teach Yourself Urdu Script by Richard Delcay (for Urdu)
- Good basic intro book. Doesn't cover the artsy stuff for actual calligraphy though. 

Resources for learning Persian nastaliq obviously work for those learning Urdu nastaliq. I improved my Urdu handwriting by reading and working through Persian textbooks.


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## tonyspeed

My favourite book for script is 
Let's Study Urdu - an Introduction to the script  - Ali Asani and Syed Akbar Hyder

There are also some nice learn Urdu through Hindi lessons available on Youtube.


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## Shounak

Hello,

If you want to learn through video, I can suggest you what I think is the best.

Please follow the videos of Nihal Uddin Usmani in YouTube. It is a series of lectures, through Hindi teaching the Nastaliq script and I think you would find it very helpful. He has other videos for reading newspaper etc. Kindly go through it. Well, I would say it is not harder, it is a different kind of orientation of your eyes to follow.


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