Arabic
calligraphy is characterized by flowing patterns and
intricate geometrical designs. This fine writing, which,
Alexandrian philosopher Euclid called a "spiritual
technique," has poured forth from the pens of Arabs for
the last thirteen centuries.
In a broad sense, Arabic writing is merely calligraphy,
a tool for recording and communicating; but in the Arab
world it is an art with remarkable history; a form with
great masters and revered traditions. Beauty alone
distinguishes calligraphy from ordinary handwriting.
Writing may express ideas, but to the Arab it must also
express the broader dimension of aesthetics.
Throughout the centuries, calligraphy remained a supreme
art form, replacing design, painting and sculpture.
Calligraphy was not only found in palaces and mosques,
but on clothing, carpets, decorative items and literary
works.
From the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to the great
mosques of Isfahan in Persia, calligraphy decorated,
enhanced and even helped to visually unify the greatest
Muslim structures.
The art of Arabic calligraphy was employed in many
European churches as well; such as in Saint Peter's
Cathedral in Rome. The representations of Christian
Saints that beautify the Capella Palatina in Palermo,
Sicily, bear inscriptions in Kufi, the early arabic
script.
Calligraphy is an aspect of
Islamic art that has evolved alongside the
religion of
Islam and the
Arabic language.
While many religions have made use of figural images to
convey their core convictions, Islam has instead used
the shapes and sizes of words or letters.
Given Islam's
taboo against
pictorial representation, drawings could not
be used to illustrate the Qur'an, as was done in the
Christian world. Calligraphy has arguably
become the most venerated form of Islamic art because it
provides a link between the languages of the Muslims
with the religion of Islam.
Anthony Welch, Professor of Islamic Art and
Architecture, writes that the primary reason for the
chronological, social, and geographic persuasiveness of
the calligraphic arts in the Islamic world is found in
the Holy Qur'an.
Welch cites the following quote from the Qur'an:
"Thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who teacheth by the pen,
Teacheth man that which he knew not." (96:3-5)
Over centuries, Arabic lettering has achieved a high
level of sophistication, and Arabic scripts can vary
from flowing cursive styles like Naskh and Thuluth to
the angular Kufi.
Arabic
writing belongs to the family of Semitic
alphabetical scripts in which mainly the consonants are
represented. Arabic script was developed in a
comparatively brief span of time to become a widely used
alphabet. Today, it comes second in use only to the
Roman alphabet.
The lives of the early Arabs were hard before Islam, but
their culture was prolific in terms of writing and
poetry. Long before Islam, Arabs acknowledged the power
and beauty of words. Poetry, for example, was an
essential part of daily life. The early Arabs felt an
immense appreciation for the spoken
word and later for its written form.
Arabic script is derived from the Aramaic Nabataean
alphabet. The
Arabic alphabet is a script of 28 letters and
uses long but not short vowels. The letters are derived
from only 17 distinct forms, distinguished
one from another by a dot or dots placed
above or below the letter. Short vowels are indicated by
small diagonal strokes above or below letters.
Writes Welch: "Written
from right to left, the Arabic script at its
best can be a flowing continuum of ascending verticals,
descending curves, and temperate horizontals, achieving
a measured balance between static perfection of
individual form and paced and rhythmic movement. There
is great variability in form: words and letters can be
compacted to a dense knot or drawn out to great length;
they can be angular or curving; they can be small or
large. The range of possibilities is almost infinite,
and the scribes of Islam labored with passion to unfold
the promise of the script."
As Islam spread beyond the boundaries of the Arabian
Peninsula, people around the world welcomed the new
faith. The new Muslims interpreted the art of
writing as an abstract expression of Islam,
each according to their own cultural and aesthetic
systems.
This cultural diversity led to the birth of regional
calligraphic
schools and styles such as Ta'leeq in Persia
and Deewani in Turkey.
When the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) died in 632 CE, the
Qur'anic revelation stopped. The content of the Holy
Qur'an was passed from lip to lip.
However, Omar Ibn Al Khattab, one of the disciples of
the Prophet Muhammad, urged the Caliph Abu Bakr to put
the Holy Qur'an in writing.
At the time only two scripts with distinctive features
were maintained. They were Muqawwar, which was cursive
and easy to write, and Mabsut which was elongated and
straight-lined. These two scripts had their impact on
the development and creation of new styles, the most
important being Ma'il (slanting), a kind of primitive
Kufic script; Mashq (extended); and Naskh
(inscriptional).
The Ma'il script failed to achieve relative popularity
and was replaced by the angular Kufic script. On the
other hand, the Mashq and Naskh were used extensively
after considerable technical improvements.
The development of Arabic calligraphy did not follow a
chronological line. A number of various forms appeared
simultaneously.
The intense and dramatic early development of writing
ended with the rise of the Umayyad dynasty (661-755).
According to Yasin Hamid Safadi in his Islamic
Calligraphy (1978), the Umayyad caliph Abdul Malek
Ibn Marwan (685-705) was the first to legislate the
compulsory use of Arabic script for all official and
state registers.
Damascus was the
Umayyad capital and was an important
political and cultural center. During the Umayyad era,
two new Arabic scripts appeared, Tumar and Jali. These
scripts were invented by the famous calligrapher Qutbah
Al Moharir.
Later, improved versions of the Tumar and Jali scripts
were developed and then used during the Abbasid dynasty
(750-1258).
Tumar was formulated and extensively used during the
reign of Mu'awiyah Ibn Abi Sufyan (660-679), the founder
of the Umayyad dynasty. Tumar became the royal script of
the succeeding Umayyad caliphs.
Calligraphy entered a phase of glory under the influence
of Abbasid vizier and calligrapher
Ibn Muqlah (886-940). According to Welch, Ibn
Muqlah is regarded as a figure of heroic stature who
laid the basis for a great art upon firm principles and
who created the Six Styles of writing: Kufi, Thuluth,
Naskh, Riq'a, Deewani, and Ta'leeq.
Ibn Muqlah was followed by
Ibn Al Bawwab in the 11th century and Yaqut
Al Musta'simi in the late 13th century. The two great
calligraphers built on Ibn Muqlah's achievements. Each
of the three men was viewed as an exemplar of certain
admirable personal characteristics and as a model for
necessary calligraphic skills.
The
Abbasid dynasty came to an end in 1258 when
Baghdad was sacked by Mongol armies. That was a
major turning point in the history of Islamic
culture, especially in the fields of arts and
architecture. Abaqa (1265-1282), the son of Hulagu,
established the Ilkhanid dynasty in Persia. Then,
Hulagu's great-grandson Ghazan (1295-1305) embraced
Islam and made it the state religion.
Ghazan, taking the Muslim name of Mahmud, dedicated
himself to the revival of Islamic culture, arts, and
traditions. The impact of Ghazan's reforms continued
through the reigns of his two successors, his brother
Uljaytu (1304-1316) and his nephew Abu Sa'id
(1317-1335). During this era, the arts of the book
industry and calligraphy were at their zenith.
Abdullah Ibn Muhammad Al Hamadani was commissioned by
Uljaytu to copy and illuminate the Holy Qur'an in
Rayhani script. Ahmad Al Sahrawardi, another master
calligrapher and a student of Yaqut Al Musta'simi,
copied the Qur'an in Muhaqqaq script. Many master
calligraphers contributed significantly to the
production of fine copies of the Qur'an in Rayhani and
Thuluth scripts including Abdullah Al Sayrafi, Yehya Al
Jamali Al Sufi, and Muhammad Ibn Yousuf Al Abari.
By the end of the 14th century, the Timurid dynasty had
succeeded the Ilkhanids in Persia. The arts and
architecture under the Timurids and their contemporaries
set a standard of excellence and elegance for
generations in Iran, Turkey, and India.
According to Safadi, the Timurid style aimed to create a
balance between beauty and grandeur by
combining clearly written scripts in large Qur'ans and
extremely fine, intricate, softly colored illumination
of floral patterns integrated with ornamental eastern
Kufic script so fine as to be almost invisible. The
calligraphers of this era were the first to use various
styles with different sizes of scripts on the same page
when copying the Holy Qur'an. Under Timurid patronage,
the most impressive and largest copies ever of the Holy
Qur'an were produced.
The Mamluks founded their dynasty (1260-1389) mainly in
Egypt and Syria. During the Mamluk era, architecture was
the pre-eminent art, and the Mamluks' patronage defined
many Islamic arts. Objects like lamps, glass, brass
candlesticks, paper Qur'an manuscripts, and wooden
minbars (mosque pulpit) were well designed, calligraphed,
and decorated.
There were many master Mamluk calligraphers whose works
exhibit superb artistic skills including Muhammad Ibn
Abdul Wahid, Muhammad Ibn Sulayman Al Muhsini, Ahmad Ibn
Muhammad Al Ansari, and Ibrahim Ibn Muhammad Al Khabbaz.
Abdul Rahman Al Sayigh is very well-known for copying
the largest-size Qur'an in Muhaqqaq script.
The Safawi dynasty (1502-1736) in Iran also produced
alluring and attractive masterpieces of Islamic art.
During the reigns of Shah Isma'il and his successor
(1524-1576), the Ta'leeq script was formulated and
developed into a widely used native script which led to
the invention of a lighter and more elegant version
called Nasta'leeq (compound word from of Naskh and
Ta'leeq). These two relatively young scripts soon were
elevated to the status of major scripts. Although
Nasta'leeq was a beautiful and appealing script, Turkish
calligraphers continued to use Ta'leeq as a monumental
script for important occasions.
The Persian calligrapher Mir Ali Sultan al-Tabrizi
invented this script and devised the rules to govern it.
Ta'leeq and Nasta'leeq scripts were used extensively for
copying Persian anthologies, epics, miniatures, and
other literary works but not for the Holy Qur'an. There
is only one copy of the Holy Qur'an written in
Nasta'leeq. It was done by a Persian master
calligrapher, Shah Muhammad
ِِAl
Nishaburi, in 1539.
The reign of Shah Abbas (1588-1629) was the golden era
for this script and for many master calligraphers,
including Kamaludeen Hirati, Ghiyathul Deen Al Isfahani,
and Imadul Deen Al Hussaini who was the last and
greatest of this generation.
The Mughals lived and reigned in India from 1526 to
1858. This dynasty was the greatest, richest, and most
lasting Muslim dynasty to rule India. The dynasty
produced some of the finest and most elegant arts and
architecture in the history of Muslim dynasties.
A minor script appeared in India called Behari but was
not very popular. Nasta'leeq, Naskh, and Thuluth were
adopted by the Muslim calligraphers during this era. The
intense development of calligraphy in India led to the
creation of new versions of Naskh and Thuluth. These
Mughal scripts are bolder, the letters are widely
spaced, and the curves are more rounded.
During the
Mughal reign of
Shah Jahan (1628-1658), calligraphy reached
new heights of excellence, especially when the Taj Mahal
was built. One name remains closely associated with the
Taj Mahal, in particular with the superb calligraphic
inscriptions displayed in the geometric friezes on the
white marble. That is the name of the ingenious
calligrapher Amanat Khan, whose real name was Abdul Haq.
Abdul Haq came to India from Shiraz in 1609 and Shah
Jahan conferred the title of Amanat Khan upon as a
reward. Amanat Khan was entrusted with the entire
calligraphic decoration of the Taj Mahal. During
Jahangir's reign, he was responsible for the
calligraphic work of the Akbar mausoleum at Sikandra and
the Madrasah Shahi Mosque at Agra.
Muslims in China who used the Arabic scripts adopted the
calligraphic styles popular in Afghanistan with slight
modifications. Muslim Chinese calligraphers invented a
unique script called Sini (Chinese in Arabic). The
features of this script are extremely rounded letters
and very fine lines.
Under patronage of the Ottoman dynasty (1444-1923), a
new and glorious chapter of Islamic arts and
architecture was opened, especially Arabic calligraphy.
The Ottomans adopted the most popular calligraphic
scripts of the time, but also invented few new and
purely indigenous styles such as Tughra.
The most accomplished Ottoman calligrapher of all times
was Shaykh Hamidullah Al Amsani who taught calligraphy
to the Sultan Bayazid II (1481-1520). Uthman Ibn Ali,
better known as Hafiz Uthman (1698), was another figure
in a line of famous calligraphers. The most celebrated
Ottoman derivative scripts were Shikasteh, Deewani, and
Jali. |