thumb|The [[surah "Al-Isra'" copied by the 13th century calligrapher Yaqut al-Musta'simi in muhaqqaq script with Kufic incidentals.]]

Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship and calligraphy,<!-- and by extension, bookmaking,--> in the languages which use the Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it. It is a highly stylized and structured form of handwriting that follows artistic conventions and is often used for Islamic religious texts, architecture, and decoration. It includes Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, and Urdu calligraphy.<!----> It is known in Arabic as (), literally meaning "line", "design", or "construction".

The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Quran, as chapters and verses from the Quran are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. Although artistic depictions of people and animals are not explicitly forbidden in the Quran, Islamic traditions have often limited figural representation in Islamic religious texts in order to avoid idolatry. Some scholars argue that Kufic script was developed by the late 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which it takes its name. This early style later evolved into several forms, including floral, foliated, plaited or interlaced, bordered, and square Kufic. In the ancient world, though, artists sometimes circumvented aniconic prohibitions by creating intricate calligraphic compositions that formed shapes and figures using tiny script. Calligraphy was a valued art form, and was regarded as both an aesthetic and moral pursuit. An ancient Arabic proverb illustrates this point by emphatically stating that "purity of writing is purity of the soul."

Beyond religious contexts, Islamic calligraphy is widely used in secular art, architecture, and decoration.<!----> Its prominence in Islamic art is not solely due to religious constraints on figurative imagery, but rather reflects the central role of writing and the written word in Islamic culture. Islamic calligraphy evolved primarily from two major styles: Kufic and Naskh, with numerous regional and stylistic variations. In the modern era, Arabic and Persian calligraphy have influenced modern art, particularly in the post-colonial Middle East, and have also inspired the fusion style known as calligraffiti.<!--

Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy is associated with abstract arabesque motifs on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the page. Contemporary artists in the Islamic world draw on the heritage of calligraphy to use calligraphic inscriptions or abstractions in their work. They used it to represent God because they denied representing God with images. Although the academic tradition of Islamic calligraphy began in Baghdad, the centre of the Islamic empire during much of its early history, it eventually spread as far as India and Spain.

Coins were another support for calligraphy. Beginning in 692, the Islamic caliphate reformed the coinage of the Near East by replacing Byzantine Christian imagery with Islamic phrases inscribed in Arabic. This was especially true for dinars, or gold coins of high value. Generally, the coins were inscribed with quotes from the Quran.

By the tenth century, the Persians, who had converted to Islam, began weaving inscriptions onto elaborately patterned silks. So precious were textiles featuring Arabic text that Crusaders brought them to Europe as prized possessions. A notable example is the Suaire de Saint-Josse, used to wrap the bones of St. Josse in the Abbey of St. Josse-sur-Mer, near Caen in north-western France.

Styles

thumb|left|9th century [[Qur'an|Quran, an early Kufic example from the Abbasid period ]]

thumb|left|Bowl with [[Kufic calligraphy, 10th century. Brooklyn Museum ]]

Kufic

The Kufic style emphasizes rigid and angular strokes, it developed alongside the Naskh script in the 7th century. Although some scholars dispute this, Kufic script was supposedly developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which it takes its name. The style later developed into several varieties, including floral, foliated, plaited or interlaced, bordered, and square kufic. Due to its straight and orderly style of lettering, Kufic was frequently used in ornamental stone carving as well as on coins. It was the main script used to copy the Quran from the 8th to 10th century and went out of general use in the 12th century when the flowing naskh style became more practical. However, it continued to be used as a decorative element to contrast superseding styles.

There was no set rules of using the Kufic script; the only common feature is the angular, linear shapes of the characters. Due to the lack of standardization of early Kufic, the script differs widely between regions, ranging from very square and rigid forms to flowery and decorative ones. Contemporary calligraphy using this style is also popular in modern decorations.

Decorative Kufic inscriptions are often imitated into pseudo-Kufics in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Pseudo-Kufics is especially common in Renaissance depictions of people from the Holy Land. The exact reason for the incorporation of pseudo-Kufic is unclear. It seems that Westerners mistakenly associated 13th–14th century Middle Eastern scripts with systems of writing used during the time of Jesus, and thus found it natural to represent early Christians in association with them.

Naskh

thumb|right|Naskh script by [[Mehmed Şevkî Efendi of the two intro pages of the Quran]]

thumb|right|[[Muhaqqaq script in a 14th-century Quran from the Mamluk dynasty ]]The use of cursive scripts coexisted with Kufic, and historically cursive was commonly used for informal purposes. Naskh first appeared within the first century of the Islamic calendar. Naskh translates to "copying", as it became the standard for transcribing books and manuscripts. The script is the most ubiquitous among other styles, used in the Quran, official decrees, and private correspondence. It became the basis of modern Arabic print.

Kufic is commonly believed to predate naskh, but historians have traced the two scripts as coexisting long before their codification by ibn Muqla, as the two served different purposes. Kufi was used primarily in decoration, while Naskh served for everyday scribal use.

Thuluth

thumb|A digital rendering of the [[Basmala|Bismillah in an 18th-century Islamic calligraphy from the Ottoman region, Thuluth script]]

Thuluth was developed during the 15th century and slowly refined by Ottoman calligraphers including Mustafa Râkim, Shaykh Hamdallah, and others, till it became what it is today. Letters in this script have long vertical lines with broad spacing. The name, meaning "one third", may possibly be a reference to the x-height, which is one-third of the 'alif, or to the fact that the pen used to write the vowels and ornaments is one third the width of that used in writing the letters.

Reqāʿ

Reqāʿ is a handwriting style similar to thuluth. It first appeared in the 10th century. The shape is simple with short strokes and small flourishes. Yaqut al-Musta'simi was one of the calligraphers who employed this style. The Arab, Ibn al-Bawwab is actually believed to have created this script.

Muhaqqaq

Muhaqqaq is a majestic style used by accomplished calligraphers, and is a variation of thuluth. Along with thuluth, it was considered one of the most beautiful scripts, as well as one of the most difficult to execute. Muhaqqaq was commonly used during the Mamluk era, but its use became largely restricted to short phrases, such as the basmallah, from the 18th century onward.

Regional styles

thumb|right|upright|Nasta'liq calligraphy of a Persian poem by [[Mir Emad Hassani, perhaps the most celebrated Persian calligrapher]]

With the spread of Islam, the Arabic script was established in a vast geographic area with many regions developing their own unique style. From the 14th century onward, other cursive styles began to develop in Turkey, Persia, and China. Spaces between letters are often narrow, and lines ascend upwards from right to left. Larger variations called djali are filled with dense decorations of dots and diacritical marks in the space between, giving it a compact appearance. Diwani is difficult to read and write due to its heavy stylization and became the ideal script for writing court documents as it ensured confidentiality and prevented forgery.

  1. Nasta'liq is a cursive style originally devised to write the Persian language for literary and non-Quranic works. Nasta'liq is thought to be a later development of the naskh and the earlier ta'liq script used in Iran. Quite rapidly gaining popularity as a script in South Asia. The name ta'liq means "hanging", and refers to the slightly sloped quality of lines of text in this script. Letters have short vertical strokes with broad and sweeping horizontal strokes. The shapes are deep, hook-like, and have high contrast.<!--==Calligrams==

thumb|leftThe official imperial [[Tughra of the Mughal Empire.]] thumb|Bismillah calligraphy from the [[Mughal Empire.]] Calligraphy, the most Islamic of arts in the Muslim world, also has its figurative sides. By interweaving written words, made from an "Allah", a "Muhammad", a "Bismillah", etc., or using micrography, calligraphers produced anthropomorphic figures ('Ali, the Ideal Human of mystics, a praying man, a face), zoomorphisms (symbolic creatures, most from the Shi'a iconography, like the lion (Ali "the Lion of God") horse ('Ali's Duldul), fish,) and inanimate representations (a sword (Dhu al-Fiqar), a mosque, a ship (made from the letter waw, a symbol of mystical union, literally meaning "and," in Arabic)). Calligrams are related to Muslim mysticism and popular with many leading calligraphers in Turkey, Persia and India from the 17th century onward. Although striking in appearance, calligrams have never been regarded as appropriate or a decent expression of the art by the master calligraphers. Many calligrams therefore were produced by either folk calligraphers or for the interest of uncultivated people. These calligrams were not exhibited in mosques or Sufi convents in the Ottoman state, for example. An element in this perspective is the rejection of the interpretation by the heretic Hurufiyyah Sufi order which sees letters as true manifestations of the fate, events and creation in themselves. In the teachings of calligraphy, figurative imagery is used to help visualize the shape of letters to trace, for example, the letter ha' looks in nasta'liq similar to two eyes, as its Persian name implies: "he' two eyes" he' do cheshm). In literature and poetry seeing in letters a reflection of the natural world goes back to the Abbasid times. One of the contemporary masters of the calligram genre is Hassan Massoudy and Wissam Shawkat. Good commercial examples are the logos of Al Jazeera, an international news station based at Qatar, and the Edinburgh Middle East Report, a Scottish academic journal on the Middle East, and also the work of the calligrapher and designer Wissam Shawkat.-->

Modern

In the post-colonial era, artists working in North Africa and the Middle East transformed Arabic calligraphy into a modern art movement, known as the Hurufiyya movement. Artists working in this style use calligraphy as a graphic element within contemporary artwork.

The term, hurufiyya is derived from the Arabic term, harf for letter. Traditionally, the term was charged with Sufi intellectual and esoteric meaning.

Hurufiyya artists blended Western art concepts with an artistic identity and sensibility drawn from their own culture and heritage. These artists integrated Islamic visual traditions, especially calligraphy, and elements of modern art into syncretic contemporary compositions. Although hurufiyyah artists struggled to find their own individual dialogue within the context of nationalism, they also worked towards an aesthetic that transcended national boundaries and represented a broader affiliation with an Islamic identity. In Sudan, for instance, artworks include both Islamic calligraphy and West African motifs.

thumb|The roof of [[Frere Hall, Karachi, Pakistan, . Mural by artist, Sadequain Naqqash integrates calligraphy elements into a modern artwork.]]

The hurufiyya art movement was not confined to painters and included artists working in a variety of media. One example is the Jordanian ceramicist, Mahmoud Taha who combined the traditional aesthetics of calligraphy with skilled craftsmanship. Although not affiliated with the hurufiyya movement, the contemporary artist Shirin Neshat integrates Arabic text into her black-and-white photography, creating contrast and duality. In Iraq, the movement was known as Al Bu'd al Wahad (or the One Dimension Group)", and in Iran, it was known as the Saqqa-Khaneh movement. Notable Islamic calligraffiti artists include: Yazan Halwani active in Lebanon, el Seed working in France and Tunisia, and Caiand A1one in Tehran.

In 2017 the Sultanate of Oman unveiled the Mushaf Muscat, an interactive calligraphic Quran following supervision and support from the Omani Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, a voting member of the Unicode Consortium.

Kufic

<gallery>

File:Folio from a Qur’an, sura 91,14-15; sura 92,1-5 (F1929.70).jpg|Kufic script in an 11th-century Quran

File:Folio Blue Quran Met 2004.88.jpg|Maghrebi Kufic script in the 9th or 10th century Blue Quran

File:Jame mosque yazd tilework.jpg|Square kufic tilework in Yazd, Iran

File:Cup votive inscriptions MET 40-170-15.jpg|Under-glaze terracotta bowl from the 11th century Nishapur

File:Hamdanid gold dinar, Nasir al-Dawla and Sayf al-Dawla.jpg|Gold dinar from 10th century Syria

Image:An example of Kufic Calligraphy.jpg|A Kufic calligraphy in Chota Imambara

</gallery>

Naskh and Thuluth

<gallery>

Image:Qur'anic Manuscript - Mid to Late 15th Century, Turkey.jpg|Muhaqqaq script in a 15th-century Quran from Turkey

File:Qur'an manuscript Surat al-Nisa'. (1).tif|Muhaqqaq script in a 13th-century Quran

File:Muhammad ibn Pir Ahmad al-shahir bi-Ibn Arghun al-Shirazi - Text Page with Dedication to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I - Walters W5912A - Full Page.jpg|Naskh script in an early 16th-century Ottoman manuscript dedicated to Selim I

File:Ijazah3.jpg|Diploma of competency in calligraphy, written with thuluth and naskh script

File:Mausolée de Touman Aka (Shah-i-Zinda, Samarcande) (6009410911).jpg|Thuluth script tile in Samarkand

Image:Kalligráfia Hagia Sophia.jpg|Calligraphy of Ali decorating Hagia Sophia

</gallery>

Regional varieties

<gallery>

File:مصحف مخطوط بالخط المغربي المبسوط ٥.jpg|A Moroccan Quran in a mabsūt Maghrebi script

File:Folio Quran Met 42.63.jpg|Surah "Az-Zumar" in an Andalusi script, from the Nasrid period in Al-Andalus

File:سورة الأعراف مكتوبة بالخط السوقي ٣.jpg|Surah "Al-A'raf" written in suqi script, named after Essouk

File:Bifolium Mushal al-Hadina Quran Met 2007.191.jpg|Nurse's Quran (Mushaf al-Hadina), from the Zirid period in Tunisia, in a Kufic script

File: Bismillah_2.svg|Bismillah in Thuluth

File:Quran with Chinese translation.jpg|Quran in Sini script with Chinese translations

</gallery>

Modern examples

<gallery>

File:Bismillah_2.svg|Bismallah calligraphy. Thuluth Jali

File:Muhammad calligraphy.svg|Muhammad calligraphy

File:Bismillah gold.svg|Bismallah calligraphy

File:Caligrafia arabe pajaro.svg|An example of zoomorphic calligraphy

</gallery>

Craft

<gallery>

File:Learning Arabic calligraphy.jpg|The instruments and work of a student calligrapher

File:Menulis khat.jpg|Islamic calligraphy performed by a Malay Muslim in Malaysia. Calligrapher is making a rough draft.

</gallery>

List of calligraphers

Some classical calligraphers

See also

References

  • Islamic Calligraphy Pictures
  • Mushaf Muscat
  • mastersofistanbul.com
  • baradariarts.com
  • Gallery with much calligraphy in Turkish mosque
  • Anthology of Persian calligraphers from 10th to 20th centuries