Hamid Ajami

Hamid Ajami was born in 1962 in a traditional family in Tehran. His first instructor was his late father, Mr. Hedayatollah, a respectful poet and a prestigious calligrapher. 

Hamid Ajami started his serious activities with Iran’s Calligraphy Association in 1978 to get familiar with the principles and regulations of academic calligraphy. His favorite calligraphy style was “Nasta’ligh Script,” which took four years of schooling under the supervision of Master Keykhosro Khoroosh. There he learned the most important principles of calligraphy. Then, passing “Good” and “Best” levels in this field, he went to the great Master, Gholam-Hossein Amirkhani, to complete what he had learned before. Finally, he started his professional activities in 1981. It took him about eight years of training to become qualified to achieve an “Excellent” degree from Iran’s Calligraphy Association. Then he began to teach “Nasta’ligh Script” to

those interested in this style. While teaching, he continued his great attempts to get acquainted with printing, layout, and essentials of coloring and illuminating (Tazhib).

Consequently, he learned visual arts basis, especially its role in calligraphy. In relation to this matter, he met some outstanding artists during the next six years and obtained very precious experiences. Then, like any other artist, he established “Fard-A Cultural and Art Institute” to achieve his advanced objectives. So, six well-known and prominent artists rounded up, cooperating with this Institute. All these people together have created a fascinating atmosphere in Fard-A to present visual arts, especially calligraphy, to those who are enthusiastically interested in arts.

After twenty-two years of perseverance and hard work, it is evident that a talented, decisive, and genuine artist has the power to make fundamental changes as an invention in the field of art. Since 1995, he has been working on the new “script” he invented. In this new script, he has obeyed all traditional principles and regulations of calligraphy. By accepting and confirming Iran’s Art Society, particularly those of experts, Hamid Ajami has the honor of naming his new script “Mo’alla” (the Exalted). The issue of claiming the invention of “Mo’alla,” regardless of the genuine background of calligraphy in the last hundred years, will leave doubts for calligraphy and art enthusiasts. However, it is ascertained that such an initiation had not been manifested during the last two hundred years. His first individual exhibition was held in October 1999 in Tehran, consisting of forty handwritings called “Mo’alla Script,” showing his technical and specialized abilities in this style of writing. The exhibition was very successful, and various art groups in Iran were visited with enthusiasm.