Mishkín-Qalam

Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Isfahání (surnamed Mis͟hkín-Qalam meaning "jet-black pen"; 18261912) was a prominent Baháʼí and one of the nineteen Apostles of Baháʼu'lláh, as well as a famous calligrapher of 19th-century Persia. He is the author of a calligraphic rendering of the Greatest Name, used by Baháʼís around the world.

Background

Mishkín-Qalam was born in Shíráz but was a resident of Isfahán, which is where he first heard of the Baháʼí Faith. A few years later he travelled to Baghdad and learned in more detail from Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín and Nabíl-i-Aʻzam, but was not confirmed until he later travelled to Adrianople and met Baháʼu'lláh. When Baháʼu'lláh was exiled to ʻAkká, Mishkín-Qalam was exiled to Cyprus with the followers of Subh-i-Azal, where he remained a prisoner in Famagusta from 1868 to 1877.

When visiting Baháʼu'lláh in Adrianople, he would often write out the phrase Yá Baháʼu'l-Abhá (O Glory of the All-Glorious) in many different forms, some taking the form of a bird, and send them everywhere. One of his renderings of this phrase is now one of the three common symbols of the Baháʼí Faith, known as the Greatest Name.

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