naskhiadj.n.

1771 W. Jones Gram. Persian Lang. 15 Our books are printed in the Niskhi hand, and all Arabick manuscripts, as well as most Persian and Turkish histories, are written in it.

1788 W. Francklin Observ. Tour Bengal to Persia 25 On each side, are engraved various sentences from the Koràn, in the Nuskhi character.

1807 in W. Jones Wks. XIII. 416 Zafar Námeh. A most elegant history of Taimur, written in the Niskh character.

1849 F. Madden tr. J. J. Champollion & A. Champollion Universal Palæogr. I. 52 The Arabic Neskhi alphabet, already in use among the Arab tribes, was forced upon Persia with the Coran, and took the place of the ancient cuneiform and other writings.

1884 Atlantic Monthly 53 309 Brockhaus has set an excellent example: first, by making use of the clear and compact Nashki characters; and, secondly, by vocalizing them throughout, thereby determining the proper pronunciation.

1959 Chambers's Encycl. XII. 291/1 In this script [sc. the Kufic] however many of the signs were inconveniently alike, and the so-called Nasḥî-script, in which diacritical points are used to distinguish similar letters, began to take its place as early as the 7th century a.d.

1970 Oxf. Compan. Art 634/1 Naskhi inscriptions are common in architecture and the decorative arts.

1997 J. Williams Money iv. 96/2 It was not until the Ayyubid period in the late twelfth century that the cursive naskhi script was employed on coins.

1777 J. Richardson Dict. Persian, Arabic & Eng. I. p. iii/1 The Niskhi,..with some variation and corruption, is the same which now prevails in Arabia, Persia, India, and other Eastern countries.

1820 J. G. Jackson Acct. Timbuctoo & Housa 350 The Arabs have various modes of writing, the principal of which is..denominated the Niskhi, or upright character.

1854 A. Sprenger Catal. Arab., Pers., & Hindústány MSS in Libraries of King of Oudh I. 8 Copies are not frequent, yet there are five in the Moty Mahall. The best is written in Naskhy.

1886 Cent. Mag. May 724/1 The five chief forms of calligraphy practiced in Persia since the Saracenic conquest are the following... The Nasch... This style is curved, but with a tendency to perpendicular rather than horizontal lines.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 730/1 Arabic writing..exhibits two principal types which are known respectively as the Cufic and the nashki.

1975 K. Katzner Langs. of World ii. 159 By the early Mohammedan period two [Arabic] scripts were in use—the Naskhi, the ordinary cursive form used in books and correspondence, and the Kufic, an angular script used mainly for decorative purposes.

1997 J. Williams Money iv. 94/1 Naskhi was one of the most commonly used of the cursive scripts and appears on coins from the twelfth century.