Ad in Al-Hilal

In Urdu by HindiRinny3 Comments

I can’t read Urdu very well (yet!?) – can anyone quickly identify what this is? Advertisement? Prayer? Something else? It is printed opposite of the table of contents of an edition of the Al-Hilal magazine, Calcutta.

I found this in the Ames Library back in Minnesota, after hearing about the famous hand-written Musalman newspaper. Since then, I’ve discovered that a countless number books and magazines were (and still are)  hand written and then reproduced using lithography. Nastaʿlīq is an especially difficult script to try to modularize and break down into typeface-happy pieces.

One interesting modern approach is Tasmeem – a stroke-based writing system. Here’s the wiki page about it!

Image info: Weekly Al-Hilal, Calcutta, Vol. I, (1981?) Chief editor Abul Kalam Azad. Published by Al-Hilal Academy, Lahore, Pakistan.

 

Comments

  1. It seems to be an ad for a translation of a book Mawaahidu r-Rahmaan (Talents of [God} the Compassionate), in 10 chapters. In the box in the bottom it gives the name of a bookstore “Maktaba Rashiidiyya L(lmyTD = ?) at 32 (1e = ?), Shah Alam Market, Lahore. The line of text that breaks the top of the black box at the bootom appears to give a short description about the book and a price of 560 Rupees. There’s something just above that in the main text that say 200 Rupees, but the angle-shaped number is a bit unclear to me.

  2. Actually, I just figured out the angled number: it’s the old Urdu shape for 7. Ergo 700 rupees is the price.

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