Arabic & Islamic calligraphy exists in all sizes and in all modes of artistic expression, most important are the works written from the 7th century onwards, on paper using a basic quill pen. It was necessary to practice for years to master this art, many masterpieces of calligraphy were collected, protected, high valued and traded at collectors prices. The Arabic alphabet has twenty-eight letters (additional letters have been added to serve the needs of non-Arabic languages that use the Arabic script, such as those of Iran and Pakistan), and each of the letters may have up to four different forms. All of the letters are strictly speaking consonants, and not like the Roman alphabet used for English and most European languages Arabic writing goes from right to left.

The Arabic script has been used much more extensively for decoration and as a means of artistic expression. This is not to say that the Roman alphabet (also like Chinese and Japanese) are not just as decorative and have not been used just as imaginatively. Since the invention of printing from type, however, calligraphy (which means, literally "beautiful writing") has come to be used in English and the other European languages only for special documents and on special occasions and has declined to the status of a relatively minor art. During the 7th century, Kufic developed as a Quranic script; an angular script with exceedingly clear contours which appears monumental also in small format; with its impressive symmetry its expresses the self assurance with which Islam in its classical period disseminated its holy scripture.

The Kufic script spread over the whole Islamic world, from Spain in the  west to beyond Iran in the east, a universal civilization. In established calligraphy studios, copies of the Quran were written on parchment in oblong format, and inscription were designed which were later chiseled into stone for buildings, or woven or embroidered into materials as ornamentation. The script had quickly became an art form that could be used everywhere, especially on buildings, for decorations. Within Kufic appeared new styles such as the slanting "Persian" script or the style used in Spain and northwest Africa, from which emerged the later "Maghrabi" script. The Introduction of paper, which came into the Islamic world from China via Central Asia in the 8th century, was particularly important for the development of calligraphy. To be sure, one continued to write Quran on parchment, since it kept better and was more prestigious - likewise also holding true on documents.
 

Islamic Calligraphy part two >

Aramaic Alphabets used by Aramaeans, a language belonging to the Northwest Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Hamito-Semitic family of languages). During the second millennium BC, the Aramaeans abandoned their desert existence and settled in Syria, bringing their language, Aramaic, with them.

Syriac Alphabets used by the Syriac Christians from the 1st century AD until about the 14th century. A Semitic alphabet, Syriac was an offshoot of a cursive Aramaic script. It had 22 letters, all representing consonants, and was generally written from right to left, although occasionally vertically downward.

Nabataean Alphabets used between approximately 150 BC and AD 150 in the Nabataean kingdom of Petra in the Arabian Peninsula. Used by the Nabataean's to write the Aramaic language, this alphabet was related to the Aramaic alphabet, one of the major Semitic scripts. The Nabataean script gave rise to the neo-Sinaitic alphabet, the ancestor of the Arabic alphabet.

ISLAMIC ART

Introductory phrase: "IN THE NAME OF GOD" in the six different styles (listed from top to bottom): Riqa, Naskhi, Nastaliq, Thuluth, Muhaqqaq and Square Kufic.

Mihrab in the winter prayer hall of Friday Mosque at Isfahan, Haidar, 1310, The mihrab is important not only for its artistic merits but also for its precise dating. Carved by Haidar, a renowned calligrapher of the period and the same artist who had designed the inscriptions at the Natanz Mosque a year earlier, the mihrab displays an amazing double-coiled arabesque and deeply-under-cut flowers beneath several type of calligraphy. It was ordered to mark the sultan's conversion to Shia'sm late in the previous year, an act that met great hostility from the conservative Sunni population of Isfahan.

Surat Maryam, illuminated double page from a Koran manuscript, Lahore 1573-1574. London, British Library. Only a few Koran manuscripts of this quality have survived from the Mughals era. This manuscript is written in Muhaqqaq and Naskhi style and its colophon reads: "Copied by Hibatullah al-Husayni for the use of the Sultan, Lahore, 981."

"God is our Help to Success", album page by Hafiz Osman, in Thuluth and Naskhi, 17th century, 21x15cm, Berlin, Museum fur Islamische Kunst. Details from the facade of the mausoleum of Ahmad Yasawi, Turkistan (today kazakhstran), 1391-1399, brick mosaic with a kufic inscription.

Persian calligraphy in the Nastaliq style, signed by Ahmad al-Husseini, c. 1575, Berlin, Museum fur Islamische Kunst. Sultan's Tughra of Salem III and decree of December 30 to January 8, 1569, Istanbul, Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art.