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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