1. The nastaʔliq variant of the Arabo-Persian script came into use in Persia during the fifteenth century, and since that time has been used almost exclusively for the writing of manuscripts in the Persian language. It continued to be used for the production of books by the lithographic process when this was introduced into Persia in the middle of the nineteenth century. Towards the end of the century letterpress printing began to gain ground; owing to the different levels at which nastaʔliq letters have to be joined, it was found impracticable to devise a satisfactory nastaʔliq typeface, and consequently the nasx type has been used almost entirely since that date for the printing of books and newspapers.

The nastaʔliq script, however, is still used (by photographic reproduction) for artistically printed books, as well as for book titles, display advertisements, shop signs, street names, posters, etc., so that a knowledge of it is essential. Moreover, it forms the basis of the šekaste script (Appendix B), which is the universal handwriting form now used for letters and so on.