Calligraphy, the art which combines visual image and written word is perhaps at its most brilliant in the arts of Islam. Islamic calligraphy traditionally took its inspiration from the Muslim belief in the divine origin of Arabic writing. In early Islam the sanctity of Arabic writing was accepted among Arabs and non-Arabs alike, and its use in sacred and official texts gave rise to a wonderful profusion of scripts, and calligraphic tradition which has flourished for over a thousand years - not only in manuscript decoration but in architecture, ceramics and paintings.

Arabic calligraphy dates, in its codified form, from ninth century AD and its decline began with the spread of printing. More than ten centuries of calligraphic tradition are represented in this growth and decline of Arabic culture.

Calligraphy is of course the art of writing, but the practice is not universal. Many people have not developed it in detail, whereas for others it is regarded as supreme art. The Japanese describe a person as ‘having beautiful handwriting’ when they mean he/she is handsome and graceful. The Arab calligraphers considered that their art was the geometry of the soul expressed through the body - a metaphor that can be taken literally with the literal design of its inspiring spirit.

It is to be understood that our concern here is not to compile a catalogue of this art but simply to honor it.

Interwoven floral kufic script. 'Allah the Omniscient' (one of the 99 names of Allah).

Calligraphy by Kamil Albaba (Lebanon)

Andulusian Maghribi Script

(Above two): Work by Shafiq-uz-Zaman Khan.

Maghribi script. A marginal motif indicating the end of a  Quranic verse (1560).