Arabic Calligraphy

Across the world and through varied regions, calligraphy has emerged as a whole. It does not find its roots in one region, but parts of it, in all. Calligraphy is an art but it is also a window into a culture. The manner of strokes, the harmony of words or the angularity of alphabets, all of it speaks something about the culture in ways that are sometimes subtle but almost always visible. Language plays a crucial role in any style of calligraphy. It not only defines culture but also unites its people.

The Arabic language played a principal role in uniting peoples who differed widely in ethnicity, language, and culture. In the early centuries of Islam, Arabic not only served as the official language of administration but it also remained as the language of religion and learning. The Arabic script underwent an evolution probably by the 6th century CE from Nabataean. Arabic is written from right to left and consists of 17 characters. Along with the addition of dots placed above or below certain of them, results in the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Short vowels are not included in the Arabic alphabet. These are indicated by signs placed above or below the consonant or long vowel that they follow. Certain characters may be joined to their neighbours, to the preceding one only, and others to the succeeding one only. It is because of these characteristics, as well as, the fact that there are no upper-case letters, that gives the Arabic script its particular character. For writing a script, the Arabic calligrapher uses a reed pen (qalam) with the working point cut on an angle. This feature produces a thin upstroke and a thick downstroke with a gradation of infinity in between. The line, alphabets and the harmony created by a skilled calligrapher is a true marvel of fluidity. There were two distinct types of scripts in the early centuries of Islam: Cursive script and Kūfic script. The Cursive script was used for day to day purposes like the Arabic Papyri from Egypt. However, Kūfic script was developed for religious and official purposes. Even though Kūfic went out of general use around the 11th century, it continued to be used as a decorative element. Right around that time about 1000 new scripts were produced and came into use for copying the Qurān.

The Naskhī script was born which has remained perhaps the most popular script in the Arab world. Naskhī is a cursive script which is based on certain laws governing the proportions between the letters. Ibn Muqlah and Ibn al-Bawwāb are the two name associated with the development of this script.

Scripts were developed in different regions and therefore all of them had distinctive folds to them. Persia and Turkey made notable contributions to calligraphy. The Persian scribes gave birth to the taʿlīq script in the 13th century. The term taʿlīq essentially means “suspension” and it aptly underlines the tendency of each word to drop down from its preceding one. It is a fluid and an elegant script that found itself in Persian literary works. Divani a script developed fundamentally in Ottoman Turkey is highly mannered and rather difficult to read. In the Islamic world for there has been an appreciation for fine handwriting which is preserved in album specimens, many of which are assembled in Turkey, Persia, and India preserved in museums and libraries. Calligraphy also includes the Arabic scripts that are employed not only on parchment, papyrus, and paper but also inscribed on walls as a sign of faith, carved on stones or as decoration. Arabic calligraphy even today stands as one of the monumental inscriptions that have brought a tectonic difference to not only the world of calligraphy but also to the world of art, culture, and heritage.