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Show HN: Persian poem illustrator (weekend project)

80 points by saman_b 12y ago

aminbandali 12y ago
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?
- saman_b 12y ago
  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.
  - aliniki 12y ago
    But looks OK on Safari (OS X 10.9)
smortaz 12y ago
this is beautiful! damet garm ;)
- saman_b 12y ago
  Thanks man, same for you :)
contingencies 12y ago
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/AAAAAAAAAEM/3mFQBtaMgXs/s1600/453_Shep_9780823033461.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nYF7e1Kd9sE/Tj6mau7h8uI/AAAAAAAAAE...
- saman_b 12y ago
  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-Ettinghausen/dp/0300088698 http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Architecture-650-1250-Richard-... 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.
  - contingencies 12y ago
    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_Calligraphy_Book_Collection_Part_1 http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7969063/Persian_and_Arabic_Ca... 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/5024533201130666017 https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/... .. 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/5560650525927120961 https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/...
kapitalx 12y ago
Love the idea. Looks great.
- saman_b 12y ago
  Thanks :)

80 points by saman_b 12y ago

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?

saman_b 12y ago
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.
- aliniki 12y ago
  But looks OK on Safari (OS X 10.9)

smortaz 12y ago

this is beautiful! damet garm ;)

saman_b 12y ago
Thanks man, same for you :)

contingencies 12y ago

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/AAAAAAAAAEM/3mFQBtaMgXs/s1600/453_Shep_9780823033461.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nYF7e1Kd9sE/Tj6mau7h8uI/AAAAAAAAAE...

saman_b 12y ago
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-Ettinghausen/dp/0300088698 http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Architecture-650-1250-Richard-... 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.
- contingencies 12y ago
  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_Calligraphy_Book_Collection_Part_1 http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7969063/Persian_and_Arabic_Ca... 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/5024533201130666017 https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/... .. 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/5560650525927120961 https://plus.google.com/photos/106883718971909092529/albums/...

kapitalx 12y ago

Love the idea. Looks great.

saman_b 12y ago
Thanks :)