Sayed Nafees al-Hussaini
1933–2008 · Kahoriala & Lahore
Sayed Anwar Hussain, known as Nafees al-Hussaini, was born on 11 March 1933 in the village of Kahoriala in Sialkot district, in what is now Pakistan. He learned calligraphy from his father, Sayed Muhammad Ashraf Ali, a naskh calligrapher known for writing the Qur'an. After schooling in Bhopalwala and Faisalabad he began working as a calligrapher in 1948, and in 1952 he opened his own studio in Lahore. He became the best-known calligrapher of his generation in Pakistan, above all in naskh and nastaliq, and also wrote Kufic, thuluth and ruq'a. The Nafees Nastaleeq computer typeface, used widely for Urdu, is named after his hand. Pakistani sources say he wrote calligraphy for one of the doors of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, and he sat as a judge at international competitions in Iran and Egypt. He received the Pride of Performance in 1985. He was also a Sufi guide, a poet in Urdu and a leader of a religious organisation. He died in Lahore on 5 February 2008, and his funeral prayer at the Badshahi Mosque drew a very large crowd.
Achievements
- Began working as a calligrapher in 1948 and opened his own studio in Lahore in 1952.
- Known above all for naskh and nastaliq; his nastaliq gave its name to the Nafees Nastaleeq typeface.
- Contributed calligraphy for one of the doors of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, according to Pakistani sources.
- Judge at international calligraphy competitions in Iran and Egypt.
- Pride of Performance (1985); first prizes at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts exhibition (1980) and the All-Pakistan Qur'anic calligraphy exhibition (1982).
Taught by: Sayed Muhammad Ashraf Ali
His work
His calligraphy is still under copyright (he died after 1975), so no works are shown. The photo on English Wikipedia is a local non-free file; none is on Commons.
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 Naskh piece the store makes: Naskh collection.
Sources
- English Wikipedia: dates, father as teacher, Lahore studio, scripts, awards, Nafees Nastaliq en.wikipedia.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).