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ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY (P2
P1) |
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By the 12th century paper
was widely accepted over parchments, the Kufic script was given up
as the Quranic script. Instead, three of the styles codified by Ibn
Muqla came into use for Quran; Naskhi, Muhaqqaq, and Raihani, whilst
the three other styles were retained for writing in offices,
administration and correspondence. The earliest preserved Quran on
paper in Naskhi script was written by Ibn Al-Bawwab in Baghdad in
the year 1001. A scholar of Ibn Mugla and the most celebrated
calligrapher of his time, he is second only to Ibn Mugla as a
theoretician of calligraphy. His work as perfected in the 13th
century by Yakut al-Mustasimi, whom both Persian and
Ottoman calligraphers use as a model - They also made fundamental
contributions ever since to the further development of calligraphy
beyond the "six styles".
 This preoccupation with
beautiful writing extended to all arts—including secular
manuscripts; inscriptions on palaces; and those applied to
metalwork, pottery, stone, glass, wood, and textiles—and to
non-Arabic-speaking peoples within the Islamic commonwealth whose
languages—such as Persian, Turkish, and Urdu—were written in the
Arabic script. It was in Ottoman Turkey, however, that calligraphy
attained the highest development once the early creative flowering
had faded elsewhere in the Middle East. So renowned were Ottoman
calligraphers, in fact, that a popular saying was that "The Quran
was revealed in Mecca, recited in Egypt, and written in Istanbul."
The Ottomans were not content merely to improve and develop the
types of script that they inherited from the Arabs and Persians but
also added a number of new styles to the calligrapher's repertoire.
 One
important addition by the Ottoman calligraphers was the script
called diwani, so called from the word diwan (meaning state council
or government office) since it was at first used primarily for
documents issued by the Ottoman Council of State. It is an extremely
graceful and very decorative script, with strong diagonal
flourishes, though less easy to read than some other styles. After
its development in Turkey, it spread to the Arab countries and is in
use today for formal documents and also as architectural decoration.
Examples of more or less
standard types of script such as these do not by any means exhaust
the number of styles. Islamic calligraphers have experimented
endlessly and have been extremely imaginative. Another distinctive
Turkish contribution is the Tughra, an elaborate and highly stylized
rendering of the names of the Ottoman sultan, originally used to
authenticate imperial decrees. The Tughra later came to be used both
in Turkey and by rulers of the Arab countries as a kind of royal
insignia or emblem, on coins and stamps and wherever a coat of arms
or royal monogram would be used by European governments.
Another unusual
variation of calligraphy, not often used nowadays, is the style
called Muthanna (Arabic for "doubled"). This is not really a type of
script in itself but consists of a text in one of the standard
scripts such as Naskhi worked into a pattern in which one half is a
mirror image of the other. Even more imaginative is what may be
called pictorial calligraphy, in which the text (usually the
profession of faith, a verse from the Quran, or some other e phrase
with religious significance) is written in the shape of a bird,
animal, tree, boat, or other object. A Quranic verse in the Kufic
script, for example, may be written so that it forms the picture of
a mosque and minarets.
The art of calligraphy is still very much alive in the Arab world and wherever the Arabic
alphabet is used. The list of everyday uses is almost endless: coins
and paper money bear the work of expert calligraphers, wall posters
and advertising signs in every town show the calligrapher's art, as
do the cover and title page of every book, and the major headlines
in every newspaper and magazine have been written by hand.
Calligraphy - the art of "beautiful writing" -continues to be
something that is not only highly prized as ornament and decoration
but is immensely practical and useful as well.
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Islamic Calligraphy part one < |
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ISLAMIC ART |
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Islamic Art |
Calligraphy
Part 1 |
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Calligraphy Part
2 |
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Islamic Calligraphers Part 1 |
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Islamic Calligraphers Part 2 |
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Islamic Calligraphers Part 3 |
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Islamic Calligraphers Part 4 |
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Carpets |
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Geometry & Floral Patterns |
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Glassware |
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Metal Work |
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Pottery |
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Textiles |
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Wood
Work |
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Obverse and reverse of a gold coin with a Kufic inscription,
Granada, 1125, Berlin, Museum fur Islamische Kunst.
Abbasids coin
 with Kufic
inscription, Gotland, 751-752, Stockholm, Royal Coin Cabinet,
National Museum of Economy. |
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Decorative
page with a religious text in Nasikh in the form of a bird,
Iran, 17th century, Berlin, Museum fur Islamische Kunst. |
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Diwani, name comes from the word diwan (meaning state
council or government office) since it was at first used primarily
for documents issued by the Ottoman Council of State. It is an
extremely graceful and very decorative script, with strong
diagonal flourishes, though less easy to read than some other
styles. After its development in Turkey, it spread to the Arab
countries and is in use today for formal documents and also as
architectural decoration. |
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