As in most forms of art, a mastery of technique is essential.
Just as many artists learn to draw by using standarized sketchbooks,
the calligrapher learns by using an album of mufradat exercises to practice all the
possible combinations of Arabic letters.
The word mufradat means "single" (as in a single Arabic letter) but over
time calligraphers have begun to apply the term to the letters of the alphabet
written in composite form. Mufradat are therefore the individual letters of the
Arabic alphabet, written in sequence as an exemplar.
The albums of mufradat exercises are relatively standard in composition.
They begin with the letters of the alphabet shown in their independent forms,
and then each of the letters is illustrated in combination with all the other letters.
Whenever these combinations may be written in more than one way,
all the different forms are shown.
These six examples illustrate ???
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