Sadequain (Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi)
1930–1987 · Amroha & Karachi
Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, known as Sadequain, was a Pakistani painter, muralist and poet who made Quranic and poetic text a main subject of modern painting. Born in Amroha in British India into a family of calligraphers, he was largely self-taught and worked from 1944 to 1946 as a calligrapher-copyist at All-India Radio in Delhi. After 1947 he settled in Karachi. From the late 1960s calligraphy became the core of his work, starting with a series on Surah al-Rahman in 1969, written in a personal script that does not follow the classical rules. He painted more than thirty large murals, among them 'Treasures of Time' at the State Bank of Pakistan and the ceiling of Frere Hall in Karachi, which was unfinished when he died in 1987. He also wrote and illustrated hundreds of quatrains (rubaiyat). He belongs with the hurufiyya painters, not with the calligraphers of the classical schools.
Achievements
- Painted the mural 'Treasures of Time' at the State Bank of Pakistan, Karachi (1961).
- Won the Paris Biennale award (Laureat de Paris), 1961.
- Made lithograph illustrations for Albert Camus's L'Etranger (1964-65).
- Began his Surah al-Rahman calligraphy series in 1969.
- Painted the ceiling of the Lahore Museum entrance hall (1973).
- Received the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (1980) and, after his death, the Nishan-i-Imtiaz (2021).
His work
Died in 1987: the works are still protected by copyright, so we show them only with the permission of those who hold the rights.
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 Kufic piece the store makes: Kufic collection.
Sources
- en.wikipedia: life, hurufiyya, murals, key works list, awards, death en.wikipedia.org
- ar.wikipedia: Arabic name, 1930-1987 ar.wikipedia.org
- ur.wikipedia: family of calligraphers, Agra BA, first exhibition Quetta 1954, works in Faisal Mosque, burial at Sakhi Hassan; gives other birth years and award years ur.wikipedia.org
- Mathaf encyclopedia: born 30 June 1930 Amroha, died 10 Feb 1987 Karachi; self-taught; All-India Radio 1944-46; 45+ murals; Mathaf holdings (Surah Al-Rahman 1985, Resurrection 1963); awards 1961, 1970, 1980 mathaf.org.qa
- Farah Khan, 'Pioneers of modern calligraphy in the art scene of Pakistan', Ancient Punjab 6 (2018): Sadequain as a pioneer of modern calligraphy; Sura al-Rahman (1980) on marble pu.edu.pk
- Wikidata: gives birth 1923 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).