This version of the script is called Kufic.

As a result, the script was made purposefully beautiful. However, when the Quran needed to be preserved during the spread of Islam, the Arabic language became much more important. Very early Arabic script was rarely used, because of the culture’s strong oral tradition. In addition, Arabic calligraphy also evolved over time into two distinct families: Kufic and rounded scripts. However, over time, it also became an important element in architecture, decoration, and coin design. Originally, Arabic calligraphy was a tool for communications and preserving the word of God through the Quran. Evolution of Arabic Calligraphyīeyond the expansion of Arabic calligraphy across geographic locations, the art form evolved in its main applications. Today, a remarkable array of calligraphy scripts have become part of the precious heritage of Arabic calligraphy, which continues to be passed along. In every new empire and culture, the practice of Arabic calligraphy was both expanded and refined by the artists who took it up.

The conversion of Ghazan, leader of the Mongol Empire, the muslim Mughal and Mamluk dynasties in India and Egypt, and, eventually, the Ottoman Empire, all pushed Islam-and along with it, Arabic calligraphy-to further reaches of the globe. The work of all of these artists during the Golden Age yielded the six major scripts: sulus, nesish, muhakkak, reyhani, tevki, and rika. These three calligraphers are history’s best known, but countless disciples studied under them, including, notably, several women who achieved renown for their skill. Image courtesy of the World Digital Library. His theory of proportion established the rhomboid dot and the length of the alif stroke as the units of measurement by which all letters in a particular script are calculated.Ī pilgrimage guide/prescriptive text attributed to Yaqut al-Musta’simi. Visier Ibn Muqla is famous for codifying the principles of calligraphy, including his theory of proportion, which calligraphers use to this day. The “Golden Age” of Arabic calligraphy is typically mapped along a succession of three great calligraphers: Ibn Muqla (886–940), Ibn al-Bawwab (believed to have lived from 961–1022), and Yakut al-Musta’simi of Amasya (d. It would also become the setting for the greatest period of advancement yet in Arabic calligraphy. Baghdad almost immediately became the cultural center of the Middle East. The result was Baghdad, a meticulously constructed and majestically walled city nestled against the Tigris river. In 762, the Abbasid Caliph Mansur set out to construct a glorious new capital for his empire. and lasted until the middle of the 13th century. A wide variety of scripts rose and fell in popularity in regions as far-flung as Damascus, Baghdad, Morocco, and Spain.2 Kufic, named for the city of Kufah in Iraq, was the first universal script, and it dominated Arabic calligraphy from the 7th to the 11thcentury, but it was still rough and relatively unsystematized, especially in comparison to the systematization it would undergo during the “Golden Age” of calligraphy, which began around 1000 B.C. The Golden Age of Arabic CalligraphyĪrabic calligraphy’s early development was not a linear process.

Ancient Persia, for instance, was using cuneiform calligraphy to adorn the monuments of kings as early as 600–500 B.C.1 Nevertheless, it was undoubtedly the spread of Islam that ushered in a great age of calligraphy throughout the ancient Middle East because of how it unified the region under the Arabic language and because of its veneration of the written word. The Spread of Islamīefore the spread of Islam, the Arabian Peninsula was home to a variety of early semitic languages, and the discovery of calligraphic artifacts in these early languages prove that the practice of calligraphy predates Islam. Below, we outline the history of Arabic script and calligraphy. However, that changed with the spread of Islam and the growing importance of preserving the Quran in written form. Traditionally, Arabic tribes preferred to memorize text and poetry and orally pass it on from generation to generation.

Arabic Calligrapher Crack