Mīr ʿAlī of Tabriz

Mīr ʿAlī of Tabriz (born c. 1360, Tabriz, Iran—died 1420, Tabriz) was an Islamic calligrapher of the Timurid Age (c. 1370–c. 1500) and a contemporary of Timur (Tamerlane); he was the inventor of the cursive nastaʿlīq script, traditionally regarded as the most elegant of the Persian scripts.

A master of many styles of calligraphy, Mīr ʿAlī developed nastaʿlīq out of the Arabic naskhī and the outdated Persian talʿīq to suit the needs of the Persian language. A well-preserved example of his work is a copy of the poet Khvājeh Kermānī’s Homā va Homāyūn (1396–97) in the British Museum. According to legend, ʿAlī, a descendant of the prophet Muḥammad, appeared to Mīr ʿAlī in a dream and showed him the nastaʿlīq script by guiding his hand. Whatever its origin, it remained as the predominant style of calligraphy in Persia for two centuries after Mīr ʿAlī’s death.