A STUNNING collection of artwork inspired by the words of Islamic mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī is on show at Blackburn Museum.

The Rumi Collection: An exhibition of ink on paper artwork is by Blackburn based Nadeem Baghdadi.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, more popularly known in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.

Rumi’s importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders and his poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages.

The exhibition is on until January and has already proved to be very popular with visitors from across the UK.

Nadeem said, ‘My work engages in creating a true mark on paper. I do this by using traditional techniques used in the Islamic and Chinese tradition of mark making namely ink, wood and paper.

“I have fused this with my own contemporary take on Islamic calligraphy and created shapes that are uncluttered and executed with one stroke of the wrist.

“The result is a stroke that consists of precision and beauty. The text from my work comes from ancient Islamic poets, philosophers and the Quran.

“I use words and sentences that inspire and move me and then create an abstract form that embellishes those words and sentences. A fusion of form and word is then created.”

The Rumi collection consists of various stanzas taken from Rumi’s Mathnawi. The Mathnawi is a series of six books of poetry and remains one of the purest literary forms of the Persian language.

Nadeem said, “I have taken various stanzas that resonate something within me, I then express that stanza through an abstract shape or form.

“My aim is to embellish Rumi’s poetry through with the traditional use of ink on paper the tools that Rumi himself used when writing his poetry.

“I find that using Indian ink and marbling ink on paper echo the significance of the poetic words better.

The uncluttered ink strokes provide a visual representation of the words themselves and the fluid marbling shapes give instant colour and a surplus height and meaning to the stanzas”

“My aim is to create something of beauty and precision that encapsulate the splendour of Rumi’s poetry.’ Nadeem is hoping to take the exhibition to Liverpool and Bradford in the coming year.

The museum is open Wednesday through to Saturday between 12:00 and 4.45pm.

You can follow Nadeem on Twitter @tahacalligraphy.