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Art of Arabic Calligraphy
Arabic calligraphy is a genuine Islamic and Arabic art. It is, no doubt,
the most important element of the Arabic legacy, as it is the pot wherein all
Arab cultures, over succeeding generations, are merging to come up with such
eternal heritage.
Its forms, however, differ, as Arabic calligraphy has surpassed the end of
writing process itself to reach eternity in terms of design and styles; further
becoming one of the outstanding features of Islamic arts, constituting the
common denominator for all Arab and Islamic arts, either they were taking shapes
of fixed buildings or mobile antiques. It was, also, used in photographing and
mosques decorating, as there is not one Arab monument void of Arabic calligraphy
art tang.
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Main Calligraphy Styles
main styles:
*
Kufic
*
Naskhi
*
Thuluth
*
Nastaliq
* Deewani
The
Kufic Styles
The city of Kufah was established in Iraq in the year 641 A.D. It flourished in
a short time from a
soldiers' camp into an urban center with vital cultural activities. Among these
activities was the
refinement of the Arabic script into an elegant and rather uniform script, which
came to be known as
Kufic or Kufi. It had a combination of square and angular lines on one hand, and
compact bold circular
forms on the other hand. The vertical strokes were short, while the horizontal
strokes were long and
extended. As Kufic reached perfection in the second half of the 8 th century, it
superseded other
earlier attempts of improvement of Arabic calligraphy, and became the only
script used for copying the
Holy Quran for the next three hundred years.
When the cursive styles were becoming popular and refined in the 10 th century,
Kufic responded by
overemphasizing many qualities of the cursive scripts in a geometrical style
called 'Eastern Kufic,'
where slender vertical strokes and oblique strokes animate the more rigid early
Kufic. This style was
mainly a book calligraphy rather than architectural calligraphy style, but was
very popular on ceramics.
On architectural monuments, serifs were added to simple early Kufic since the 8
th century, and
leaf-like vegetal ornaments appear as early as 866 at the ends of vertical
strokes. These ornaments
were later added to round strokes, and the Foliate Kufic became the most popular
style for
architectural inscriptions since the 10 th century.
In the 11 th century the letters themselves started to be modified and used as
ornaments,
and new geometric elements started to appear in the form of plaiting, knotting,
and
braiding2. The exaggerated use of such ornaments created complex compositions,
which
were difficult to decipher at times.
During the 13 th and 14 th centuries, Square Kufic developed out of the use of
calligraphy in buildings.
Its simple forms contrast with the trend to develop more complex calligraphic
compositions. It was the
only calligraphic style used to cover entire buildings, a practice unique to
Islamic architecture.
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Naskhi
Naskh, which means "copying," was developed in the 10th century, and refined
into a fine art form in
Turkey in the 16th century. Since then it became generally accepted for writing
the Quran. Naskh is
legible and clear and was adapted as the preferred style for typesetting and
printing. It is a small
script whose lines are thin and letter shapes are round.
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Thuluth
Thuluth is a more impressive, stately calligraphic style which was often used
for titles or
epigrams rather than lengthy texts. Its forms evolved over the centuries, and
many
variations are found on architectural monuments, as well as on glass, metalwork,
textiles,
and wood. Mamluk Thuluth of the 14th century was heavy and large, while the
Ottomans
preferred the simpler more refined version still practiced today.
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Nastaliq
Nastaliq developed in Iran in the 14 th and 15 th centuries. It is the most
fluid and expressive of the
scripts presented here, and is used extensively in copying romantic and mystical
epics in Persian.
Nastaliq has very short verticals without any "serifs," and deep curved
horizontals. It slants to the
right in contrast to all the other styles which slant to the left
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Deewani
Deewani script is an Ottoman
development parallel to Shikasteh (broken style). The script was largely
developed by the accomplished calligrapher Ibrahim Munif in the late 15th
century from the Turkish/Persian Ta'liq. Deewani reached its zenith in the 17th
century, thanks to the famous calligrapher Shala Pasha.
Like Riq'a, Deewani became a
favorite script for writing in the Ottoman chancellery. Deewani is excessively
cursive and highly structured with its letters undotted and unconventionally
joined together. It uses no vowel marks. Deewani also developed an ornamental
variety called Deewani Jali which also was known as Humayuni (Imperial). The
development of Deewani Jali is credited to Hafiz Uthman. The spaces between the
letters are spangled with decorative devices which do not necessarily have any
orthographic value. Deewani Jali is highly favored for ornamental purposes.
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