Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

The term talik means suspension or hanging together. Talik is said to have got this name from its letters being connected to each other, and is in fact a compound of tawki, rika and naskh scripts. The shikasta talik (broken talik) is the result of writing talik rapidly. The letters are written in a more intricate style, which makes shikasta talik difficult to read. It started to appear in 8th/14th century and was developed by Khwaja Taj Salmaniyi Ispahani (d. 897/1491). The Persians however customarily call this script simply talik without the prefix shikasta. Talik was a special script in Persian, which was the form of old tawki script which was used for official documents. Since the post-Alamut period, the official letters of the Imams for the jamat became known as Talika or Talika Mubarak in the Ismaili jamat.