Owing to my personal interest in Iranian poetry and calligraphy, the following project attempts to delve into the formal potential of these traditional scripts, turning them from two-dimensional shapes into sculpture-like volumes. The focus has been on the two early and the latest styles, Thuluth and Nasta’liq, in order to get a general understanding of the modification process in the aesthetic aspects of writing throughout Islamic art history by investigating the two ends of the evolving spectrum.

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Thuluth is one of the first script varieties of Islamic calligraphy (a more rounded development of Kufic, the known earliest calligraphic style) invented by the Persian calligrapher Abū’ Ali ibn Muqla Bayzavi Shirāzi, with the unique attribute of one-third of each letter sloping, from which the name (meaning “a third” in Arabic) comes. An exquisite cursive script that has been employed on mosque decorations since medieval times and is also the dominant typeface on the Saudi Arabian flag, indicating its historical and cultural significance.

Before the 15th century, Thuluth was the primary typeface for the headers of surahs, or Qur'anic chapters, before being replaced by the Naskh script, which is itself derived from Thuluth.

A significant component of Thuluth is the stylistic marks to beautify the writing, which have their own rules about placement and grouping, allowing for enormous inventiveness in shape and orientation. Thuluth has spawned a wealth of calligraphic styles and, over time, has allowed for countless alterations, resulting in later notable scripts such as Muhaqqaq and Naskh.

Nastaliq has been one of the central calligraphic pens of the post-Sassanid Persian writing tradition used for Persian poetical writings and Urdu and Malay manuscripts, apparently formalized by the master calligrapher Mir’ Ali Tabrizi in Iran from the Naskh script beginning in the 13th century; as the name Nastaliq is a contraction of the Persian Naskh-i ta’liq, which means a hanging or suspended Naskh. It is currently widely used for written poetry and as a form of art in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other countries.

Bearing the heritage of their prior styles, the Naskh and Reqah were blended in the 12th century, resulting in the creation of Taliq, a new category of Persian calligraphy. In the 14th century, Naskh and Taliq were eventually combined, and the most attractive Persian calligraphy style, regarded by many practitioners as being informally titled “The Bride of Calligraphy,” Nastaliq, was established.

Nastaliq has a tendency to slope downward from right to left, and unlike its forerunners, it flows easily and has natural curves. Although the Persian alphabet is the same as Arabic in the written orientation from right to left, there are four extra characters. The Nastaliq script's basic trajectory slopes from top to bottom; this is crucial because there is no fixed level or height for any character. The Taliq element, which in Arabic means "hanging," refers to the highly cursive quality of this design, in which the characters' strokes practically "hang" from the imagined horizontal line.

By nature, depending on whether it is at the beginning, middle, or end of a word, each character takes on a particular shape. Furthermore, the Nastaliq writing style is even more context-dependent, with the shape of a character changing based on the word's 4th or 5th previous character.

The Nastaliq technique is framed by thousands of ligatures, or character combinations, with the Persian script comprising only 32 characters. This style is exceptionally challenging for students to grasp due to the time-consuming task of memorizing these guidelines. They do, however, give the calligrapher a lot of leeway for interpretation and originality. Moreover, as a constantly evolving craft, it is now applied to a variety of digital and traditional mediums.