Islamic Calligraphy Biography
Source:- Google.com.pkThus begins a sixteenth-century treatise on calligraphy, and the expression is representative of the numerous formulas by which Islamic poets and calligraphers began their epistles on writing. The art of writing has played, and still plays, a very special role in the entire Islamic culture, for by the Arabic letters—heritage of all Islamic societies—the Divine Word could be preserved; and Muslims were well aware that writing is a special quality of the human race, “and by it man is distinguished from the other animals.” It is, as Ibrahim ash-Shaybani stated, “the language of the hand, the idiom of the mind, the ambassador of intellect, and the trustee of thought, the weapon of knowledge and the companion of brethren in the time of separation.”2
The field of Islamic calligraphy is almost inexhaustible, given the various types of Arabic script and the extension of Islamic culture. It is therefore not surprising that a comparatively copious literature about various aspects of Arabic calligraphy has been produced not only in Muslim lands but also in the West, since Arabic letters were known in Europe during the Middle Ages and were often used for decorative purposes. The fine Kufic inscription on the coronation gown of the German emperor shows the west’s admiration for Arabic writing as do paintings like the famed “Madonna with the sha- hada“3(profession of faith). These letters were understood as exotic decorative devices, however, and only in the late fifteenth century was the Arabic alphabet first made accessible to German readers in its entirety. It is found in the travelogue of a German nobleman, Brey- denbach, who performed a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and offered his impressions of the journey to his compatriots in woodcuts, among which is also found an awkwardly shaped Arabic alphabet. Somewhat later presses for Arabic printing were founded, first in Italy, then in Holland; but there was no general interest in the letters used by the alleged archenemy of the Christian world.4 As late as in the eighteenth century, with the unbiased interest in Oriental subjects growing, some studies were devoted to the early development of the Arabic script; as Adolf Grohmann has shown in his indispensable work on Arabic Paleography, J. G. C. Adler was the first to study the Kufic inscriptions on early coins.5 But one should not forget that even Goethe, in his West-Ostlicher Divan (1819), played with the names of various styles, such as naskh and tacliq, claiming that, whatever style the beloved uses, it does not matter as long as he expresses his love. Grohmann’s survey has been updated and enlarged by Janine Sourdel-Thomine in her articles on kitab and khatt in the new Encyclopedia of Islam.
It was natural that the type of Arabic that first attracted the orientalists was the angular script as found on the coronation gown and on early coins, which was generally called Kufi. For a long time it was used in Western scholarship to distinguish merely between two major types of script—the so-called Kufi and the cursive hand, the latter type then subdivided into the western, Maghribi character and the style used in the Persian world, tacltqor nastaliq. Even A. J. Arberry, in his handlist of the Korans in the Chester Beatty Library, uses only these terms without entering into a more detailed definition of the cursive hands.
A debt of gratitude is owed to Nabia Abbott, who did the first independent study of the so-called Koranic scripts, published in 1939.6 The incoherent statements found in Arabic and Persian sources concerning the earliest forms of Arabic writing are difficult to disentangle. They speak often of macqiliy which was invented, according to legend, by the prophet Idris and had no curved lines whatsoever.7 Then, out of this inherited script cAli ibn Abi Talib allegedly developed the so-called Kufi, with a division of curved and 5/e straight lines—a tradition that may reflect the transition from earlier Semitic alphabets to the elaborate Kufic style of the first centuries of the Hegira. It is remarkable that a scholar like Abu Hayyan at-Tauhidi in the early eleventh century still mentions twelve basic forms of Kufi, many of them named after the places where they were first used.8 We certainly can recognize the ma‘il script that, slanting to the right rather unbeautifully, is found on some fragments of vertical format (in contrast to the horizontal formats of Kufi Korans).9 Nabia Abbott regards many pieces that show a slight slant toward the left and a low, small curve at the beginning of the alif as Meccan, but we still do not know how Medinan or Basrian styles may have looked. It seems, however, that Kufa was indeed one of the important centers for the art of writing, and the political connection of cAli ibn Abi Talib with this city accentuates the generally maintained claim that cAli was the first master of calligraphy. Later generations ascribe to him the invention of the “two-horned alif” which may be the shape found in early inscriptions and called “split- arrowhead alif as in Sufism, the spiritual pedigree of the calligraphers invariably leads back to cAli, and in the late fifteenth century, Sultan-cAli Mashhadi, the famous master of nastacliq, claimed that “the renown of my writing is due to the name of cAli.”10
Horned Alif
Franz Rosenthal correctly states that ”the earliest Arabic documents of writing exhibit, to say the least, a most ungainly type of script.” 11 One of the true miracles of Islam is how this script developed in a comparatively brief span of time into a well-proportioned, highly refined calligraphy of superb beauty. As used for early Ko-rans, Kufi is the liturgic script par excellence,12 as Martin Lings has shown with great clarity. However, it is more than doubtful whether any of the fragments preserved in the museums date back to the time of the first caliphs, as is claimed by their proud owners. As early as in the ninth century the great mosque in Damascus boasted of possessing a copy of cOthman’s Koran, and so did the mosque in Cordova; this latter copy was so heavy that it had to be carried by two men.13 The terminus ante quem for a fragment or a copy of the Koran can be established only when the piece has a waqf note, showing the date of its accession in a certain library. The earliest datable fragments go back to the first quarter of the eighth century; but it is possible that the recently discovered Korans in Sanaa, which are at present being inventoried and analyzed by a German team, may offer a further clue to the early development of writing. Less problematic, of course, is the date of coins and of architectural Kufi.
The very impressive, sometimes truly festive character of the oldest Korans—which were written in mushaf, that is, book form, as distinguished from the papyrus scrolls with profane texts14—may suggest that at least some of them were written tabarrukan, or for the sake of blessing, rather than for reading purposes. They may have also served for the huffaz and qurra, who had committed to memory the Holy Book but wanted a written support. Diacritical marks and signs for vowels were added in the days of cAbdul-Malik (685) in order to avoid misreadings of the sacred text;15 colored ink was used for this purpose, and thus the poets would compare such manuscripts to a colorful garden.
The number of known Kufi Korans and f ragments is remarkably great and increases almost daily, but no two of them seem to be completely identical in style. The majority, with the exception of the ma’il fragments, are written on vellum in horizontal format. Often only three to five lines of black or brown letters fill the page, and the letters on the hairy side of the parchment are usually faded; as the poet says:
After being full of glory the places became desolate desert, Like lines of writing when books are worn out.16
Kufic Alif
Sometimes golden ornamentation is used for sura headings or to separate the ay as; in some cases groups of five ayas are separated by a minute h, a letter whose numerical value is 5. Generally the alif begins with a crescent-shaped curve at the lower right, the n goes straight down without any curve, and r and w are Hat and curled in themselves.
kufic kaf
Dal, kaf, and tay can be extended to a great length according to the space at the writer’s disposal, and one can understand why Persian poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries spoke of someone’s heart or intellect as being “as narrow as a Kufic kaf.”
The distance between the single letters is almost equal—grammatical considerations are not taken into account—which also holds true for the separation of words from line to line.
The measurements of the early Korans vary as widely as those of later times. A tradition ordered God’s Word to be written in large letters, and most Korans seem to comply with this injunction; but there are also miniature copies. A fragment on fine vellum, 7 by 4 cm, with fourteen lines on the page, written in brownish ink, is as meticulously calligraphed as large manuscripts. Whether such a pocket Koran was meant for a traveling scholar, an officer in the caliphal army, or a merchant is unknown.17
Beginning of the first three lines of Sura 81, wa idha a, from an early Koran, showing the equal distance between the letters. After Moritz, Arabic Palaeography
Beginning of the first three lines of Sura 81, wa idha a, from an early Koran, showing the equal distance between the letters. After Moritz, Arabic Palaeography
Some Koran copies were written on colored paper. A famous example is the one whose greatest part is preserved in Tunis, fragments of which are found in Western museums. It is written in golden letters on dark blue vellum, and one may assume that cross-relations with Byzantium may have inspired the artist, since the use of purple and other colored paper for official Byzantine documents is attested. (A good example is the purple letter sent by Constantine VII Porphyrogenetos to cAbdur-Rahman of Cordova in 949.) Another possible source of influence may be Manichean art. Mani appears constantly in Persian poetical imagery as the painter par excellence, and precious, lavishly decorated Manichean writing from Central Asia may have influenced the use of colored and gilded paper in some sectarian or mystical writings; that seems to be the case in the correspondence of Hallaj, which aroused the suspicion of the Baghdadi authorities.18
As we can barely date any of the early Korans and only very few names of calligraphers are known,19 the problem of their provenance is equally puzzling. If all the Korans now preserved in Tunis were written in Ifriqiyya, a flourishing school of calligraphy must have existed there during the first centuries of the Hegira. Somewhat later this “school” produced also one of the most unusual Korans hitherto known, the so-called Mushaf al-hadina, which was ordered by the nurse of the Zirid prince al-Mucizz ibn Badis in 1019— 20. It is in a vertical format, with five lines on pages measuring 45 by 31 cm. The letters with “teeth” are slanting toward the left; the rounded ones look like buds, resembling the eastern varieties of Kufi much more than the Maghribi style that began to emerge about the same time.20 Given the mobility of Islamic artists, the possibility cannot be excluded that a calligrapher from Iran may have spent a more or less extended period of his life in Tunisia; but this is highly speculative. Interestingly, Ibn Badis himself composed a book on “pens, ink, and script.”21
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
Islamic Calligraphy Islamic Art Calligraphy And Architecture Designs Patterns Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers Hd Calligraphy Wallpapers Calligraphy Canvas Wallpapers Canvas
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