Gholam Hossein Amirkhani
1940– · Taleqan
Gholam Hossein Amirkhani is an Iranian master of nastaliq. He was born in early 1940 (Bahman 1318 in the Iranian calendar) in the village of Takiyeh Naveh in Taleghan, and moved to Tehran as a child. He learned nastaliq from the brothers Sayyid Hossein and Sayyid Hassan Mirkhani, and also copied older masters such as Mir Emad and Mirza Kalhor. From 1961 he was employed as a calligrapher at the Fine Arts Administration in Tehran. He joined the Iranian Calligraphers Association in 1965, was named a master in 1979, and has long directed the association. Many well-known calligraphers, among them Amir Ahmad Falsafi and Ali Ashraf Sandoghabadi, studied with him. He has written out the Golestan of Saadi, the Rubaiyat of Khayyam and the Divan of Hafez, and wrote teaching books on nastaliq. In 2020 Iran registered him as a Living Human Treasure.
Achievements
- Employed as a calligrapher at the Fine Arts Administration in Tehran from 1961.
- Member of the Iranian Calligraphers Association from 1965, named a master in 1979, later its director.
- Received Iran's first-class Order of Culture and Art (1999/2000, again 2009/10).
- Chosen as one of Iran's 'Enduring Figures' (Chehreh-haye Mandegar) in 2002.
- Made a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in March 2017.
- Registered by Iran as a Living Human Treasure for nastaliq in 2020.
Taught by: Sayyid Hossein Mirkhani, Sayyid Hassan Mirkhani (Siraj al-Kuttab)
Taught: Mehdi Fallah, Karamali Salkhordeh Absardi, Amir Ahmad Falsafi, Ali Ashraf Sandoghabadi, Javad Bakhtiari, Valiollah Ahmadkhan-Beigi
His work
The works of a living calligrapher are theirs: we show them only with their permission.
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
Write in this tradition now →Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi) — or every Nastaliq piece the store makes: Nastaliq collection.
Sources
- fa.wikipedia: born 18 Bahman 1318, Takiyeh Naveh (Taleghan); teachers; 1340 SH employment; students; orders 1378 and 1388 SH; Chehreh-haye Mandegar 1381 SH; French Chevalier 1395 SH; Living Human Treasure 1398 SH; works and books fa.wikipedia.org
- en.wikipedia: born 1939 Taleghan; ICA member 1965, master 1979; Sareban Gallery solo show 2014; says 'Legion of Honor' 2017 en.wikipedia.org
- Tehran Times, 19 Jul 2020: Living Human Treasure (decision of 18 Feb 2020); teachers the Mirkhani brothers; Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, March 2017; director of the Iran Calligraphers Association tehrantimes.com
- Wikidata: born 8 Feb 1940; student of Hassan Mirkhani wikidata.org
Written by the MASHQ studio · last updated 2026-10-05. Further reading, the standard references in English: Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) · Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York University Press, 1984) · Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy (Thames and Hudson, 1978).