Umaima Farooqui (left), assistant archivist at the Dr Zakir Hussain Library of Jamia Millia Islamia university, and Mahdieh Khajehpiri, assistant director of the Iran-based Noor Microfilm International Centre Foto Bernama
By Shakir Husain
Shakir Husain, Bernama correspondent in New Delhi shares his side of the story from the Indian sub-continent.
NEW DELHI (Bernama) -- When the Mughal era in South Asia came to an end, it was a devastating blow to the flourishing Islamic arts and culture.
Calligraphy was one practice that was deprived of patronage and faced a gradual decline.
The rulers used to employ calligraphers to produce artistic writing for literature, crafts and architecture.
In post-independent India, the dwindling community of calligraphers found refuge in the marginalised Urdu newspaper industry.
They wrote headlines in lovely patterns and styles but such work neither brought them much recognition nor monetary rewards as the Urdu press increasingly faced financial difficulties and loss of readership.....