Arabic Script Types

The Kufic Script
Kufic script, a heavy monumental Arabic script suited to stone carving, appears in the earliest surviving Koran manuscripts. In these, the diacritical marks over the letters are sometimes painted in red, and the gold decorations between suras contrast handsomely with the heavy black script. In the Seljuk period, a more cursive flowing script, Naskhi, developed. The two styles were often used for contrast in architecture and decorative contexts.


The Naskh Script
Naskh, which means "copying," was developed in the 10th century, and refined into a fine art form in Turkey in the 16th century. Since then it became generally accepted for writing the Quran. Naskh is legible and clear and was adapted as the preferred style for typesetting and printing. It is a small script whose lines are thin and letter shapes are round.


The Thuluth Script
Thuluth was the medieval Islamic style of handwritten alphabet. Thuluth (Arabic: "one-third") is written on the principle that one-third of each letter slopes. It is a large and elegant, cursive script, used in medieval times on mosque decorations. It took on some of the functions of the early Kufic script; it was used to write surah headings, religious inscriptions, and princely titles and epigraphs. It was also used for many of the large copies of the Koran produced from the 13th century.


The Ta'liq / Nasta'liq / Farsi Scripts
Ta'liq is a cursive style of lettering developed in Iran in the 10th century. It is thought to have been the creation of Hasan ibn Husain Ali of Fars, but, because Khawaja Abdul Mali Buk made such vast improvements, the invention is often attributed to him. The rounded forms and exaggerated horizontal strokes that characterize the Ta'liq letters were derived primarily from the Riqa' script. The ornateness and sloping quality of the written line had roots in the Towqi script of Ibn Muqla (died 940). Designed specifically to meet the needs of the Persian language, Ta'liq was used widely for royal as well as daily correspondence until the 14th century, when it was replaced by Nasta'liq.

Nasta'liq was the predominant style of Persian calligraphy during the 15th and 16th centuries. The inventor was Mir 'Ali of Tabriz, the most famous calligrapher of the Timurid period (1402-1502). A cursive script, Nasta'liq was a combination of the Naskh and Ta'liq styles, featuring elongated horizontal strokes and exaggerated rounded forms. The diacritical marks were casually placed, and the lines were flowing rather than straight. Nasta'liq was frequently incorporated into the paintings of the early Safavid period (16th century) and is traditionally considered to be the most elegant of the Persian scripts.


The Riq'a Script
Riq'a, the simpler style of everyday writing is very economical and easy to write. It is popular for writing both Turkish and Arabic.


The Diwani Script
The Diwani script is a cursive style of Arabic calligraphy developed during the reign of the early Ottoman Turks (16th-early 17th century). It was invented by Housam Roumi and reached its height of popularity under Süleyman I theMagnificent (1520-66). As decorative as it was communicative, Diwani was distinguished by the complexity of the line within the letter and the close juxtaposition of the letters within the word.


A variation of the Diwani, the Diwani Al Jali, is characterized by its abundance of diactical and ornamental marks.


Source: Kamel El Baba, Rouh Al-Khatt Al-Arabi

The Art of Arabic Calligraphy

Arabic is written from right to left, like other Semitic scripts, and consists of 17 characters, which, with the addition of dots placed above or below certain of them, provide the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Short vowels are not included in the alphabet, being indicated by signs placed above or below the consonant or long vowel that they follow. Certain characters may be joined to their neighbors, others to the preceding one only, and others to the succeeding one only. The written letters undergo a slight external change according to their position within a word. When they stand alone or occur at the end of a word, they ordinarily terminate in a bold stroke; when they appear in the middle of a word, they are ordinarily joined to the letter following by a small, upward curved stroke. With the exception of six letters, which can be joined only to the preceding ones, the initial and medial letters are much abbreviated, while the final form consists of the initial form with a triumphant flourish. The essential part of the characters, however, remains unchanged.

These features, as well as the fact that there are no capital forms of letters, give the Arabic script its particular character. A line of Arabic suggests an urgent progress of the characters from right to left. The nice balance between the vertical shafts above and the open curves below the middle register induces a sense of harmony. The peculiarity that certain letters cannot be joined to their neighbors provides articulation. For writing, the Arabic calligrapher employs a reed pen (qalam) with the working point cut on an angle. This feature produces a thick downstroke and a thin upstroke with an infinity of gradation in between. The line traced by a skilled calligrapher is a true marvel of fluidity and sensitive inflection, communicating the very action of the master's hand.

Arabic calligraphy, thus, is the art of beautiful or elegant handwriting as exhibited by the correct formation of characters, the ordering of the various parts, and harmony of proportions.

In the Islamic world, calligraphy has traditionally been held in high regard. The high esteem accorded to the copying of the Quran, and the aesthetic energy that was devoted to it, raised Arabic calligraphy to the status of an art. Arabic calligraphy, unlike that of most cultures, influenced the style of monumental inscription. It is revered as highly as painting.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

Arabic Calligraphy

In the 7th and 8th centuries AD the Arab armies conquered for Islam territories stretching from the shores of the Atlantic to Sind (now in Pakistan). Besides a religion, they brought to the conquered peoples a language both written and spoken. The Arabic language was a principal factor in uniting peoples who differed widely in race, language, and culture. In the early centuries of Islam, Arabic not only was the official language of administration but also was and has remained the language of religion and learning. The Arabic alphabet has been adapted to the Islamic peoples' vernaculars just as the Latin alphabet has been in the Christian West.

The Arabic script was evolved probably by the 6th century AD from Nabataean, a dialect of Aramaic current in northern Arabia. The earliest surviving examples of Arabic before Islam are inscriptions on stone.

Arabic is written from right to left and consists of 17 characters, which, with the addition of dots placed above or below certain of them, provide the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Short vowels are not included in the alphabet, being indicated by signs placed above or below the consonant or long vowel that they follow. Certain characters may be joined to their neighbors, others to the preceding one only, and others to the succeeding one only. When coupled to another, the form of the character undergoes certain changes.

These features, as well as the fact that there are no capital forms of letters, give the Arabic script its particular character. A line of Arabic suggests an urgent progress of the characters from right to left. The nice balance between the vertical shafts above and the open curves below the middle register induces a sense of harmony. The peculiarity that certain letters cannot be joined to their neighbors provides articulation. For writing, the Arabic calligrapher employs a reed pen (qalam) with the working point cut on an angle. This feature produces a thick down-stroke and a thin upstroke with infinity of gradation in between. The line traced by a skilled calligrapher is a true marvel of fluidity and sensitive inflection, communicating the very action of the master's hand.

Broadly speaking, there were two distinct scripts in the early centuries of Islam: cursive script and Kufic script. For everyday purposes a cursive script was employed: typical examples are to be seen in the Arabic papyri from Egypt. Rapidly executed, the script does not appear to have been subject to formal and rigorous rules, and not all the surviving examples are the work of professional scribes. Kufic script, however, seems to have been developed for religious and official purposes. The term Kufic means "the script of Kufah," an Islamic city founded in Mesopotamia in AD 638, but the actual connection between the city and the script is not clear. Kufic is a more or less square and angular script. Professional copyists employed a particular form for reproducing the earliest copies of the Qur'an that have survived. These are written on parchment and date from the 8th to the 10th century. They are mostly of an oblong as opposed to codex format. The writing is frequently large, especially in the early examples, so that there may be as few as three lines to a single page. The script can hardly be described as stiff and angular; rather, the pace is majestic and measured.

Kufic went out of general use about the 11th century, although it continued to be used as a decorative element contrasting with those scripts that superseded it. About AD 1000 a new script was established and came to be used for copying the Qur'an. This is the so-called naskhi script, which has remained perhaps the most popular script in the Arab world. It is a cursive script based on certain laws governing the proportions between the letters. The two names associated with its development are Ibn Muqlah and Ibn Al-Bawwab, both of whom lived and worked in Mesopotamia. Of the latter's work a single authentic example survives, a manuscript of the Qur'an in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.

Distinctive scripts were developed in particular regions. In Spain the maghribi ("western") script was evolved and became the standard script for Qur'ans in North Africa. Derived ultimately from Kufic, it is characterized by the exaggerated extension of horizontal elements and of the final open curves below the middle register.

Both Persia and Turkey made important contributions to calligraphy. In these countries the Arabic script was adopted for the vernacular. The Persian scribes invented the ta'liq script in the 13th century. The term ta'liq means "suspension" and aptly describes the tendency of each word to drop down from its preceding one. At the close of the same century, a famous calligrapher, Mir 'Ali of Tabriz, evolved nasta'liq, which, according to its name, is a combination of naskhi and ta'liq. Like ta'liq, this is a fluid and elegant script, and both were popularly used for copying Persian literary works.

A characteristic script developed in Ottoman Turkey was that used in the chancellery and known as diwani. This script is highly mannered and rather difficult to read. Peculiar to Turkish calligraphy is the tugra (tughra), a kind of royal cipher based on the names and titles of the reigning sultan and worked into a very intricate and beautiful design. A distinctive tugra was created for each sultan and affixed to imperial decrees by a skilled calligrapher, the neshan.

There has always existed in the Islamic world a keen appreciation of fine handwriting, and, from the 16th century, it became a practice to assemble in albums specimens of penmanship. Many of these assembled in Turkey, Persia, and India are preserved in museums and libraries. Calligraphy, too, has given rise to quite a considerable literature such as manuals for professional scribes employed in chancelleries.

In its broadest sense, calligraphy also includes the Arabic scripts employed in materials other than parchment, papyrus, and paper. In religious buildings, verses from the Qur'an were inscribed on the walls for the edification of the faithful, whether carved in stone or stucco or executed in faience tiles. Religious invocations, dedications, and benedictory phrases were also introduced into the decoration of portable objects. Generally speaking, there is a close relationship between these and the scripts properly used on the conventional writing materials. It was often the practice for a skilled penman to design monumental inscriptions.

(Source: Britannica 2001); (The History of Arabic Calligraphy, Between Past & Present (Arabic), Tareekh Al-Khatt Al-Arabi Bayna Al-Madhi Wal-Hadhir 2002, By Hassan Sobhi Mourad)