Assalamu alaikum, and welcome. I am Hamza Siddiqui and this is Reed Pen and Walnut Ink, a show about calligraphy and the people who still make letters by hand. I want to start at the very beginning, before any letter, with the pen. When I arrived at my teacher's house in Lahore, I expected to write. Instead he handed me a dried reed and a knife, and for a week I cut pens. Then for a year I made single strokes with them. Not one word. Today I will take you through that cut, the slit, and the angle that makes Nastaliq possible at all. I will talk about walnut ink and soot ink and the recipe my teacher kept in his head. And I will tell you why that year of strokes was the kindest thing he ever did for me. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.