Islamic calligraphy is one of the richest traditions of human history that has endured and evolved over the last millenium and a half . The ancient art of Islamic calligraphy ( beautiful writing ) began in earnest with the scribes who wrote down what Prophet Muhammad recited after receiving divine revelations from God in 610 in Mecca . The revelations were continued for the next 23 years . Compilation of these revelations was eventually organized and distributed in a final form of that archetypal ” Book ” -- the Holy Quran-- and distributed widely in the nascent yet expanding Islamic domain , for dissemination of the Message . Ali Ibn Abi Talib - a cousin of the Prophet and the fourth Caliph , was the first master of Islamic calligraphy who is credited to have invented the “ two horned alif ,” ( the letter A ) the first Arabic alphabet . The art of Islamic Calligraphy has a profound connection with Islamic spirituality that is deeply inspired by the Noble Quran , which Muslims believe is the visual embodiment of the Divine Message . As Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes in his book titled “ Islamic Art and Spirituality ” ( State University of New York Press , 1987 ), “… Islamic Art is an aspect of the Islamic revelation , a casting of the Divine Realities ( Haqai ’ q ) upon the plane of material manifestation , in order to carry man upon the wings of its liberating beauty to his original abode of Divine Proximity .” Thus writing Word of God ( Quranic verses ) has been considered akin to getting nearness to the Divine , and is a form of worship . Arabic written in many scripts was ennobled because it became the primary means of visual , artistic and aesthetic expression of the Message of God .
IMPLEMENTS / TOOLS OF CALLIGRAPHY
The prime writing instrument is a qalam ( calamus ) carved from reed or bamboo , using different widths and cuts of the tip depending on which script is written . Prolonged and laborious procedures have been followed by classical and orthodox professional calligraphers , including harvesting and seasoning of the reed or bamboo to make it suitable for carving , to procuring the paper that needs to be dyed , sized and burnished resulting in a slick , glossy surface that makes the Qalam ( pen ) glide on the surface . Some purist calligraphers make their own black ink from soot ( by burning linseed oil , beeswax or kerosene ), dissolved in gum arabic and mixed in distilled water interminably . Colored inks were derived from combining plants / flowers , ground metals and gum arabic .
Initially , portions of the Quran were written on bone , stone , wood or papyrus and later for the first two centuries , complete copies of the “ Book ” were written on parchment ( animal hide ). Paper invented in China and introduced to the Islamic world via Samarkand in the middle of the ninth century transformed the art of calligraphy .
STYLES / SCRIPTS OF CALLIGRAPHY
The first script was the Kufic or Hijazi which was angular and square , and is named after the city of Kufa where Ali ibn Abi Talib
ON THE COVER popularized the script . For the first three centuries of the Islamic period ( 7 th to 9 th C . E .), Quran was written in the Kufic script which evolved over time but was rather ungainly and difficult to read . One of the early Kufic inscriptions ( epigraphy — seen on surfaces including architecture ) can be seen inside the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem . Many artistic embellishments and variations of Kufic script exist including Eastern Kufic , Plaited Kufic , Square Kufic and many others . Cursive writing was however sorely needed and Ibn Muqla ( 880-940 AD ) - a vizier and calligrapher under Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad , came to the rescue . He was a person of heroic stature who laid the sound foundation of proportionality and devised and improved several scripts .
Thuluth ( Sulus ) script originated in the 7 th century and reached maturation by the 9 th century . Thuluth is also dubbed as the “ King of Calligraphy ” and has arguably become the most imposing , common and impressive script . When the Dome of the Rock was restored by the order of the Caliph Al-Ma ’ mun ( reigned 813-833 C . E .), a barely visible narrow belt of inscription was added in Thuluth script .
Naskh script evolved by the 11 th century and was used extensively for copying Qurans because of its straightforwardness and readable simplicity .
Ibn Muqla was followed by the two other members of this triad of master calligraphers and innovators , Ibn-al- Bawwab ( d . 1022 AD ) and Yaqut al-Musta ’ simi ( d . 1298 ). From the 14 th to the 18 th centuries , these three legendary calligraphers exerted huge influence in the field of Islamic calligraphy . Ibn-al Bawwab refined Ibn Muqla ’ s rules and invented elegant Muhaqqaq and Rayhani scripts . The third calligrapher , Yaqut Al-Musta ’ simi , often called “ The Sultan of Calligraphers ” invented the oblique chiseled tip of the Qalam to achieve greater fineness .
Nastaliq script , called the “ Bride of Arabic Calligraphy ,” was invented in Iran by Mir Ali Tabrizi ( d . 1420 ) as a hybrid ( of Taliq and Naskh ), elegant and effusive script and became quite popular in the Indian Sub-continent as well for writing in Farsi ( Persian ) and Urdu .
TURKISH CALLIGRAPHY
Calligraphic marvels of great beauty have been created since the tenth century when Turkey joined the Islamic world and the Arabic alphabets acquired aesthetic splendor in the ever-expanding Ottoman domain . Over the ensuing centuries , there were inventions of many scripts as well as refinement of existing ones by the master calligraphers who maintained a classical master-disciple relationship with very long apprenticeships ( sometimes a decade or two !) before an authoritative Ijaza or certification to write one ’ s name to these creations was granted .
A Turkish master calligrapher , Shaykh Hamdullah laid the sound foundation of Turkish calligraphy around 1500 , and his successors have produced a model of special beauty in the Islamic world . A Turkish saying proclaims , “ Kuran Mekke ’ ye indi , Misir ’ da okundu , Istanbul ’ da yazildi (“ The Quran was revealed in Mecca , was recited
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