Darayat Khan (Abdallah), calligrapher

درايت خان (عبد الله)

Mughal calligrapher, son of Kifayat Khan, who learned shikasta from his father and then devised a manner of his own called 'Darayat Khani'; masters of the art agree that he surpassed his father 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
calligrapher
Era
The Gunpowder Empires
Region
South Asia

Arts of the book

Summary

Darayat Khan's real name was Abdallah; he was the son of Kifayat Khan and, like his father, attached to the Mughal court. He learned shikasta from his father and then, through practice, devised a style of his own called "Darayat Khani". 1

Standing

Tarikh-i Khatt o Khattatin says masters of the art agree that he wrote better than his father, and that Ghulam Muhammad, author of the Tazkira-i Khushnavisan, praised him so highly as to say that had Mir Ali Tabrizi lived to see Darayat Khan's hand he would have forgotten his own nasta'liq. A specimen of his hand is preserved in the Bayaz of Bakhtawar Khan. 1

Connections

Explore the connections

Child of
Kifayat Khan (Muhammad Ja'far Khan), calligrapher
Studied under
Kifayat Khan (Muhammad Ja'far Khan), calligrapher
Exemplifies
Shikasta script

People and things also explored

Shikasta script· Kifayat Khan (Muhammad Ja'far Khan), calligrapher· Abd al-Majid Taliqani· Muhammad Shafi' Haravi (Shafi'a)· Aurangzeb (Alamgir I)· Abbasid tin-glazed ware· Ahmadnagar painting· Proportional script and the six pens (al-aqlam al-sitta)

Sources

  1. Syed Muhammad Salim, Tarikh-i Khatt o Khattatin, ed. Syed Aziz al-Rahman (Karachi: Zawwar Academy Publications, 1422/2001) , p. 153
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Darayat Khan (Abdallah), calligrapher”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/darayat-khan-calligrapher/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story.
Related

Shikasta script

A Persian script whose name means "broken", developed in Iran after the sixteenth century; it links normally unjoined letters so a word can be written in one stroke — the Persian equivalent of shorthand — and gave rise to shikasta-nasta'liq for edicts and letters.