"THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM": ON THE SENSUAL AND THE SENSUOUS IN ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY Author(s): DAVID J. ROXBURGH Source: Muqarnas, Vol. 25, FRONTIERS OF ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE: ESSAYS IN CELEBRATION OF OLEG GRABAR'S EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY (2008), pp. 275-298 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27811125 . Accessed: 22/09/2014 13:46

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Muqarnas.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DAVID J. ROXBURGH

"THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM": ON THE SENSUAL AND THE SENSUOUS IN ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY

is to a carrier of Writing is calliphoric, that say beauty, in figs. 1 and 2) attributed to Firuz Mirza Nusrat al and it becomes terpnopoietic by bringing pleasure... Dawla I is an exception that makes the kinetic and Difficulties as soon as one tries to under arise, however, temporal dimensions of the calligrapher's work evi stand what is or even artistic in actually beauty quality dent, available to the eye. The study belongs to a writing. category of works termed siy?h mashq, literally "black Oleg Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament1 writing," in Persian (Arabic musawwada; Turkish kara lama) .4These were ostensibly made as practice exercises The intense noise the writ screeching generated by over the course of a career but or as calligrapher's quickly ing instrument, whether reed bamboo, it flexes developed identifiable, formalized aesthetic features, across the surface of the paper sheet is an experience including superimposed or staggered letters; a text of Islamic calligraphy unknown tomost of us.2 Equally written in opposing directions so as to require differ surprising is the slow movement of the pen by which ent, often multiple, angles of viewing; and the privi the calligrapher generates individual letter shapes leging of visual affect over legibility. Some employed through fastidious, controlled movements, especially writing of different sizes, opposing small and large when writing at larger sizes: it is then that the size script to foreground the value of scale. Though siy?h of the writing tool and the properties of materials? mashqs seem to be about modest practice, they attained such as the of the ink and the of the viscosity expanse a level of The attributed to Firuz on virtuosity.5 example writing surface?place still greater strain the cal Mirza not only reveals process through materiality? Traces of the successive ligrapher's physical capacities. as that was made in time?but also something sug movements of ink are on applying rarely registered another mode of the of are gests temporality by repetition the paper support. When these movements visible words.6 Words are laid over each other, and repeated as a lines of to the eye, they appear series of graded or letter shapes (graphemes) word fragments (combi ink akin to the contours made in sand by the physical nations of two graphemes) are slightlyoffset, suggesting as one sees in two forces of water, squared-off ebbing their translation across the sheet of paper as a rapid blocks their adjacent letter's phonetic values denoting sequence of m?/m?/m?n [grief] in can repetition (e.g., 1). A record of physical movement also be (fig. the third line at top right, or the doubling of the nun visible in the long strokes?principally in lengthened same after j? in the word j?n [soul] at the end of the or letters and the ink becomes joined ligatures?where line). less dense in the passage from right to left (figs. 1 and Broad characterizations of Islamic calligraphy, when 2). the repeatedly returned pen Though calligrapher address formal aspects of writing?and this is curi in they to inkwell to replenish the nib with ink the process ously rare?typically focus exclusively on the attribute of a few he did this in a copying lines, generally way the consummate con of skill, asserting calligrapher's that left little or no indication of the pen's to-ings trol and closely measured steps.7 In the most recent and instead a seamless fro-ings, favoring production assessment to in we are offered a com means appear print, signaled by the absence of certain of encoding parison between Islamic and East Asian calligraphic expressiveness.3 traditions to drive home this a point: Perhaps following the dictates of its genre, spec imen of calligraphy (fig. 3, already shown in detail

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 276 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

a in Fig. 1. Detail of practice exercise (siy?h mashq) nastallq, attributed to Firuz Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla, Iran, ca. 1835-53. on cm Ink, opaque pigment, and gold paper, 41.5 28.9 (folio). Harvard Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, gift of Afsaneh Firouz in honor of her Shahroukh same in in father, Firouz, Fig. 2. Detail of the practice exercise, shown full ? President and Fellows of 2006.119. (Photo: Katya Kallsen, fig. 3. Harvard College)

sat con East Asian calligraphers generally motionless, This comparison raises many issues, not least of which is the moment of artistic and templating creation, then, the validity of underwriting a comparison between two a to with burst of creativity, applied brush support. As distinct cultural and artistic traditions?where Islamic a result, the reader is meant to sense the personality calligraphy is defined in opposition, or through, the of the artist the In the through calligraphy. following features of East Asian calligraphy?by invoking a uni the reader a visual of brushstrokes, experiences sequence or versalizing transcultural formalism?that is, defin movement and rest and thus in the participates physical formal features in relation to each other without of creation. ing process concern whether those values were for understanding This scenario does not hold true in the Islamic lands, read by contemporaries within the cultures invoked where the individual artist is thought to have applied in the that we read them or whether is way today, they pen to support in regular, steady strokes...The reader were similar not meant to from assigned meanings. glean the calligrapher's personality to line For the of this however, the script, but rather appreciate the unwavering purposes essay, emphasis and modulated forms that reflect the transcendence of will be given to the commonly accepted assumption movement are in this definition of the traits of Islamic the Almighty. Palpability and replaced by expressed art in ineffability and control, complex characters by simple calligraphy: that the of beautiful writing the strokes.8 historical Islamic lands can be understood to involve

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM" 277

in to Firuz Mirza Nusrat ca. 1835-53. Fig. 3. Practice exercise (siy?h mashq) nastaliq, attributed al-Dawla, Iran, Ink, opaque on cm Art Arthur M. Sackler of Afsaneh Firouz pigment, and gold paper, 41.5 28.9 (folio). Harvard Museum, Museum, gift in honor of her father, Shahroukh Firouz, 2006.119. (Photo: Katya Kallsen, ? President and Fellows of Harvard College)

an of skill (perhaps even to require) the radical omission of the visual pleasure lies solely in appreciation at calligrapher's body in favor of technical perfection and the individual calligrapher's abilities replicat and conformity to established convention in which ing preexisting canonical tradition. Visual pleasure ever context of historical occurrence the artwork was does not entail the apprehension of the calligrapher's is material or time?or the originally made. In this view, Islamic calligraphy process?whether through an as deprived of any form of indexicality?it cannot be gauging of individuality itmight become manifest access that viewers have to in of letter or autograph?and any might idiosyncracies shaping composition. in The antidote to of these apprehending the fact of time passing the making perfect many assumptions, one us to redirect and our of the writing is denied in the finished artwork, which that challenges rephrase its all-at-onceness. In this is a from Timurid insistently signals assessment, questions, calligraphic specimen

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DAVID J. ROXBURGH

a to Ahmad Herat before 1433. Ink on 57.8 4. Calligraphic exercise after model in riqa, attributed al-Rumi, (?), paper, 31b. of Palace cm (written surface). Topkapi Palace Museum, H. 2152, fol. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Museum, Istanbul)

a men Herat made before 1433 (fig. 4). Composed of eighteen phy, here enacted by community of who gath lines that repeat the Arabic saying "Blessings coalesce ered to write after a model, and evidences an actual around -shukr tad?mu the iterations of the gratitude" (bi al-niam), temporality through multiple saying specimen shows how fourteen calligraphers responded written by fourteen individuals. Gesture and individ to the "example" (khatt or mith?l) by Ahmad al-Rumi uality may be coded in each line, but not by varia on or traces provided in the upper right-hand corner.9 Writing in tion the tonality of ink, by the material turns of an instrument across or a riqa script, each calligrapher took imitating the pulled paper, by subjec a most original line and concluded his performance with tivemanipulation of the form of each letter. The signature (later encircled); these written names can pressing of its visual aspects not considered thus far? more readily be comprehended by us as "autographic" that the repeated lines are differentiated from each because of their proximity to our cultural notion of other, but not at the level of individual letter shape? handwriting. Taken as a whole the sheet signals the will be examined below. ever-present performative aspect of Islamic calligra

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM" 279

This essay attempts to adjust the common under ligraphy, painting, and drawing, but works of straight standing of the omission of the body in the produc history and treatise literature also include references a on tion of Islamic calligraphy by addressing paradox; in imparting advice the techniques of artistic produc broad terms thismight be described as the gulf divid tion.12Throughout this corpus of written sources, the ing art-historical writing since the early 1900s from the high status of calligraphy as an art form?a status assessments of viewers in late in contemporary Timurid, attained the early years of Islam?is proclaimed Safavid, and Ottoman dynastic settings about themer by citing references to writing and the pen from the its of individual calligraphers and their calligraphies, Qur'an and the Hadith that provide, for example, of how they defined achievement and the criteria of metaphors of God's act of creation being akin to that aesthetic value, and of what calligraphy promised to of writing, such as "The first thing God created was the we those who made it and those who viewed it.What pen." Joining revelation and the words of the Prophet will also see, however, is that correlating the formal Muhammad are a number of sayings attributed to of and material aspects Islamic calligraphy with what historical persons from the early Islamic period, such one reads about it in art-historiographic literature as cAli b. Abi Talib's "Whoever writes Tn the name dealing directly with itspractice is no simple matter.10 of God, the compassionate, the merciful' in beautiful Perhaps that explains why so few art historians have writing will enter Paradise without account." There tackled the aesthetic dimensions of Islamic calligra are also aphorisms attributed to the Greeks, includ to a phy, preferring instead immerse themselves in ing Euclid's "Handwriting is spiritual geometry that a 13 taxonomic project seemingly without end.11 appears by means of bodily instrument." In writing on This study focuses the sensual and the sensuous about calligraphy and calligraphers, authors of the in as a means Islamic calligraphy of thinking about 1500s and later periods had at their disposal a rich an the corporeal dimensions of artistic practice, of and profound literary tradition composed of concepts the ways in which the calligrapher's body might be and images from earlier Arabic sources, which had understood as incarnated in the finished work. Ifwe in turn assimilated the traditions of the Greeks and are to think of Islamic calligraphy as the inscription pre-Islamic Persians. This corpus of wisdom about a as of human movement, a deposit left by a kines calligraphy?developed in works of belles-lettres?was on can thetic process, what grounds this be compre also perpetuated in calligraphic specimens that took hended? We are concerned here with the modes of as aphorisms their subject matter. Examples include in written sources reception found that record cul the frequently used "Calligraphy is the tongue of the tural attitudes to calligraphy mostly framed through hand and the translator of infinite duration" (Al-khatt an encounter with seen after specimens cold, their lis?n al-yad wa tarjum?n al-khuld), and cAlib. Abi Talib's and with selected case studies on the production, pur "I recommend to you the beauty of calligraphy, for suit of from the 1500s the calligraphy through early it is among the keys to sustenance" ('Alaykum bi-husn modern that consider issues from the period ranging al-khattfa-innahu min maf?tlh al-nzq). of and to the execution processes training practice An important concept that was applied to cultural of the fair We will consider both forms of evi copy. understandings of calligraphy in the sixteenth century dence from the of what reveal about was perspective they that of the "trace" (?th?r, pl. ?thar). In its varied the effect of the work of art on the human senses? uses "trace (s)" had the senses of a relic, a footprint, "the sensuous" defined here as aesthetic gratification calligraphies, and memorials or architectural land or "visual and "the sensual" as the as pleasure," process marks. A key element of the "trace" applied to cal which the senses are activated. by ligraphy was the capacity of writing to preserve ideas. an This concept developed especially rich body of sayings, including "Handwriting is the tongue of the CALLIGRAPHY AND ITS RECEPTION IN hand. Style is the tongue of the intellect. The intel WRITTEN SOURCES lect is the tongue of good actions and qualities. And good actions and qualities are the perfection of man" Sixteenth-century Iran was without doubt the richest (cAbbas); "Handwriting is the necklace of wisdom. It of written sources on the aesthetic evalua serves to sort provider the pearls of wisdom, to bring its dis tion of calligraphy. These textswere mostly written in persed pieces into good order, to put its stray bits Persian as introductions to album collections of cal together, and to fix its setting (?)" (Jacfar b. Yahya

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 280 DAVID J. ROXBURGH a not [d. 803] ) ; "The light of handwriting makes wisdom vis tue, and that his beautiful writing was sign only ible, and the skillful handling of the calamus shapes of his acquired virtue but also of his innate virtue.18 art politics" (attributed to an unnamed Greek philoso In their compositions about art, aesthetics, and pher); "The calamus is the nose of the brain. When history,writers active in the later sixteenth century also it bleeds, it divulges the secrets of the brain, shows addressed the benefits that accrued from contemplat the has" its ideas, and spreads the information brain ing calligraphy. On this subject Khvandamir writes: b. Harun and "The stars of wise (Sahl [d. 830]); say form The eye is favored for seeing the writing's ings [shine] in the darkness of ink" (al-Ma'mun).14 but the heart is of its meaning. are of ignorant There many others. One aspect of the beauty are Its form and meaning praiseworthy; in its writing lay utility. they brighten the pupil of the eye.19 A fundamental element of the concept of the trace In an and Khvan was the additional notion thatwriting recorded, by way expanded highly metaphorical poem, damir the album as a in which cal of a footprint-like impression, the moral makeup of engages totality and other works of art are the calligrapher. Thus the Safavid calligrapher Dust ligraphies preserved: Muhammad, in an album dated 1544-45, writes, is in the ocean of preface Every coveted pearl that nourished our works to us; so after us at our "Verily point c gaze contentment works" (inna ?tharn? tadullu alayn? fa-anzur? ba'dan? is to be found in this sea [i.e., album]. ill? It is an idea that finds in of the al-?th?ri). expression Like beauty, it lights the torch eye; as as the eleventh of it seizes heart.20 calligraphy treatises early century. like the meeting lovers, every In his "Ode in the Letter R on Rhyming Calligraphy" on One of the more specific writers the perception of (Raiyya fi -khatt), Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 1022) urged his calligraphy is Shams al-Din Muhammad Vasfi (writing reader to develop good writing precisely because it between 1568 and 1577). According to him, "human would be the only thing left to posterity.16 Such ideas nature" (tabai-i insani) maintained their cultural value up to the late 1400s acquires "spiritual/contem and "eternal and 1500s, when were used Shihab al plative pleasure" (hazz-i r?h?ni) bounty" early they by He (fayz-i j?vid?m) from observing works of art.21 Din cAbdAllah Murvarid (d. 1516) and Ghiyath al-Din remarks that is held in esteem b. Humam al-Din Muhammad, known as Khvandamir calligraphy high by elite and common alike, and that even the (d. 1535), the authors of the earliest known album people illiterate at it. Murvarid and Khvandamir meta enjoy looking prefaces. employ Authors to sight in the sensory pro phors that liken the pen to an instrument that scatters give primacy cess of of cal pearls (drops of ink). Moreover, in Murvarid's pref apprehending calligraphy; comparisons tomusk, for seem to be more about ace, a poem dedicated to praising cAli b. Abi Talib ligraphy example, an color than odor. Nevertheless also invoke olfac compares every "point" (nuqt) cAliwrote to unal they to extracted from "the ocean of In sensation, sweet-smell tered pearl sanctity." tory comparing calligraphies herbs or The his preface, Khvandamir employs an image of callig ing ambergris. synesthetic metaphors used writers of the sources raphies as pearls brought from a capacious inkwell? by Persian-language give an of the activation of the senses?and he likens it to a "sea" (lujja)?to the "shores of these impression invoke an if do folios" (bi-s?hil-i In awr?q). Murvarid and Khvandamir overwhelming experience?even they not criteria for the of use these metaphors to conjure potent mental images supply appreciation calligraphy in formal or technical terms. of the calligrapher's body.17 specifically Comments about works of art amount to character The idea that calligraphy constituted not merely izations of their visual or attributes. The for a physical remnant of the person but also his moral properties mal elements of artworks are often imprint?hence that calligraphy also possessed a moral implied through even more two modes of are iden beauty?was voiced forcefully by the callig analogy. Overall, response describes an abstract rapher Sultan cAliMashhadi (d. 1520), a contempo tifiable: the attributive, which on which rary of Murvarid and Khvandamir. In his treatise quality of the artwork, and the metaphorical, between based on like the practice of calligraphy, Sir?t al-sut?r (Way of Lines infers relationships things qual of a or ofWriting), completed in 1514, Sultan cAliMashhadi ities (e.g., the perfect materiality pearl ruby a These two singles out Ali b. Abi Talib as his prime example, not and the shape of letter of the alphabet). are with the rhetorical ing that cAli's goal in writing was the practice of vir responses entirely consistent

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM" 281

of the whose vec A of these written sources in Persian and protocol Persian-language sources, summary tor is the exemplary and always tends toward the abso Arabic reveals that the body, whether that of the cal source or lute. The generic framework of the written ligraphier inscribed in the calligraphy of the viewer controls how the authors write about art and their engaged in the experience of the work, is very much of it. The senses involved in the of cal experience present. appreciation In assessing Sultan cAli Mashhadi's calligraphy, ligraphy include sight and, by way of metaphor, smell or a another preface author, Malik Daylami (writing in even taste.Hearing is presumably given, especially stresses its and because these visual are attached to sounds. 1560-61), "purity" (safa) "sharpness" shapes (t?z?)\writing on Muhammad Qasim Shadishah's cal The sense of touch is less directly invoked, unless one ligraphy, Shams al-Din Muhammad Vasfi notes that it considers a form of haptic visuality, or seeing linked the of and to as is "at extremity sweetness, elegance, light touch and movement, suggested in Shams al-Din ness" sh?r?n va namak? va and that (bi-gh?yat-i n?zuk), Muhammad Vasfi's poem praising the pen: Anisi Badakhshi's is pure, sweet, and penmanship "very Writer of marvels, reed va sh?r?nva 22Dust Muhammad ruddy-cloaked light" (bisy?r s?f n?zuk) two with tongues but silent in speech, describes Anisi Badakhshi's as "delicate" calligraphy A in stature resplendent cypress spreading shade (n?zuk), and and "pure" (s?f), "pleasing" (pasand?da) that draws its night-tresses underfoot, Muhammad Shadishah's as "delicate" as an Qasim (n?zuk), Straight arrow, in nature like a bow "clean" and Less countenance (p?kiza), "pleasing" (pasand?da).25 that hides the of day with dark night.26 generic descriptors include Dust Muhammad's opin The the is dressed ions that Sultan Muhammad Khandan "wrote with [an] poem anthropomorphizes pen?it in a cloak and is as slender as a essential quality" (bi-kayfiyatnivishtand) and that Nur cypress (a comparison tomen and women)?and further al-Din cAbdAllah exhibited an impressive "quickness frequently applied more it the to the of copying" (surat-i kit?bat). assigns capacity speak, invoking two Invoked amid such assessments are references to the conventional image of the tongues of the pen (its As the moves, it shade and calligraphers' personal attributes, evidenced by their split nib). pen spreads its dark tresses behind it ink from conduct in life. It is often difficult to separate these pulls (the moving the onto the The last from assessments of their calligraphy per se. In Dust pen paper). couplet develops this the of Muhammad's words, Sultan cAliMashhadi was of "good image by discussing physical properties the and the of ink on character" (husn-i akhl?q), and Sultan Muhammad pen likening dispersal paper to the from to the Nur was "accomplished" (sar-anj?m), "pure" (p?k?zag?), passage day night, pen blackening and "abstemious" The the sheet. "pious" (varac) (taqva). language light used to praise personal conduct often resembles that used to describe and judge performance in calligra phy: they are not only related by a shared vocabulary THE CALLIGRAPHER'S TRAINING AND but also by the conception of abstract qualities. This PRACTICE gives further impetus to an indexicai reading of cal the index cannot be understood via ligraphy, though Fine calligraphy was appreciated not only in its post the formal of in the we language gesture way might production life, as historical manuscripts of various conceive of it East Asian In fur or through calligraphy.24 kinds album collections that assembled formerly ther of the idea that Islamic had support calligraphy loose calligraphed sheets and made new entities out an indexicai relation to itsmaker?that embod writing of them (figs. 5 and 6);27 calligraphers also studied ied the traits of an individual and as a trans operated specimens of accomplished writing as part of their medium?is a much earlier cited port anecdote, by education. This aspect of training and practice is Abu al-Tawhidi, an encounter of the referenced in a of Hayyan relating variety primary sources, includ seventh century: ing manuals on the practice of calligraphy and even the occasional work of Ibn Khaldun's When a secretary of c?mr b. al-As came to cUmar, the history, Muqad dima a Prac latter asked him: Are you not Ibn al-Qayn from Mecca? (Prolegomena) being prime example.28 tice the "visual" of When the secretary answered in the affirmative, cUmar through (n?zir?) study preexisting said to him: The calamus does not hesitate to show to models, and not only those made "by the pen" (qalam?), whom it ismentioned in several Persian written belongs.25 sources, ranging

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 282 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

5. Practice exercises various in Fig. by calligraphers riqa (one specimen signed by Nasr Allah al-Tabib, dated Muharram 736 1335]). Ink on 41.8 30.6 cm Palace [August-September paper, (folio). Topkapi Museum, B. 410, fols. 85b-86a. (Photo: of courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul)

from Sultan cAli Mashhadi's above-mentioned work to another written in treatise, the late 1500s by Baba Shah Isfahani and (d. 1587-88) titled Adah al-mashq (Manners of Practice).29 Baba Shah Isfahani outlines three in the stages training, firstbeing "visual practice" nazar?), the second (mashq-i "pen practice" (mashq-i and the third qalam?), "imaginative practice" (mashq-i khay?li).50 In this tripartitemodel, Baba Shah Isfahani voices an element of training, the third, that Sultan cAliMashhadi have taken for may granted. Explaining what he means by "imaginative practice," Baba Shah Isfahani writes:

"Imaginative practice" iswhen the scribe writes not accord to a model but with ing reference to the power of his own and he writes nature, every composition that appears The benefit of [to him]. this practice is that it makes the scribe a master of spontaneity (tasarruf), and when this takes the practice mostly place of pen practice, one's

6. in to Fig. Siy?h mashq muhaqqaq, attributed Yaqut al-Mustacsimi (can Yaqut), Iran, before 1549. Ink on paper, 41.8 30.6 cm (folio). Topkapi Palace Museum, B. 410, fol. 127b. (Photo: of courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul)

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "the eye is favored for seeing the writing's form" 283

in of two Sultan cAli 8. in of two Sultan Fig. 7. Mufrad?t nastal?q (first sheets) by Fig. Mufrad?t nastaltq (second sheets) by Mashhadi, Herat, before 1520. Opaque pigment, ink, and ?Ali Mashhadi, Herat, before 1520. Opaque pigment, ink, cm 48.4 34.5 Palace H. paper, 48.4 34.5 (folio). Topkapi Palace Museum, H. and paper, (folio). Topkapi Museum, 2154, fol. 47b. (Photo: courtesy of Topkapi Palace Museum, 2154, fol. 48a. (Photo: courtesy of Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Istanbul)

becomes non-reflective If someone a a writing (b?-maghz). to seat words in line, and how to space sequence makes a habit of and avoids across a was pen practice imaginative of words page. This order of instruction he lacks and is like the reader who practice, spontaneity, the one least effectively mediated through written the of others but himself cannot write. grasps writing modes of pedagogical transmission. And if the cal is not in pen Spontaneity permitted practice.31 ligrapher were to attain a level of mastery?and not simple competence?as stressed by Baba Shah Isfahani, in were to devote Calligraphers training encouraged achieving fluency in aspects of composition would be total commitment to models? studying ink-on-paper truly critical to his success. Rote replication of letter which either were or selected they given according shapes and fluency in their combinations were insuf to their own tastes?before or during the process ficient skills if one wanted to achieve the status of of actually writing with a pen. Such study of models master.32 provided many important lessons about the formal Two sheets bound into an album are in fact prac configurations of letters in their different positions in tice exercises in nastaliq script signed by Sultan cAli a word. Through concrete examples it also imparted Mashhadi (figs. 7 and 8).33 Known as mufrad?t (liter as advice about how to organize writing on a page, how ally, "simple, singular" distinct from "compound,"

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 284 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

murakkab?t), these exercises begin with the writing and Persian) protocol, at the end of which students own in isolated form of the individual graphemes used in were granted permission to sign work in their the Arabic alphabet, followed by the joining of each names.35 The final outcome of this licensing proce a in the form letter in alphabetical sequence to the other letters of dure yielded palpable sign of mastery an the alphabet, also in alphabetical order. Every per of exercise made by the student and signed by the not same student's master and other witnesses.36 mutation is shown because the grapheme, lands or letter shape, can be modified to produce differ Though calligraphers working in theOttoman the ent phonemes by the addition of a number of dots formalized this process of calligraphic training, were much above or below the letter (the Arabic alphabet has sev basic principles of learning and instruction a same as we can about both earlier eral homonyms, and the system of pointing offered the what deduce Students means of differentiating individual phonetic values). and contemporary practice in other regions. a as the advice of Sultan Hence the letters jim, ha, and kha, which share sin studied physical specimens, per and watched gle shape, are combined with the alphabetic sequence cAliMashhadi and Baba Shah Isfahani, of an immediate alif through ya, avoiding duplication of letters that their teachers in the action writing,37 let them see activities share the same form, such as fa and q?f The line thus form of instruction that rang are of materials and tools to reads: ha, jat, haj, jad, har, har (two forms given ing from the preparation of letters. These two forms of for the initial-position ha joined to ra), jar, has, khash, the actual generation of and has, khat, jar, jaf haq, hak, hal, jam, kham, han, jaw, jah, empirical observation?study specimens study in with the jal?, hay, hay (two forms for the initial-position ha of the livingmaster?culminated practice the var it was ultimate success. joined to ya). Sultan cAliMashhadi conveys pen and, hoped, Ottoman lands would writ ious means of linking letters to each other, offering Students in the begin by out the letters one one and then a template of the conventions for joined letters and ing by by combining the relation between consecutive letters that are not them into pairs as in the format of m?fred?t (Arabic are also dem and Persian One of joined (there six in all). The mufrad?t mufrad?t). page m?fred?t (fig. 9), a of first onstrates how letters are configured in their initial, shows such sequence joined-letter pairs?the see line links the letter and the fourth line the let stand-alone position and in theirmedial form.We cayn ter to letters of the the of both the latter in the penultimate section of the exercise, fa alphabet: script one of the six cursive where Sultan cAliMashhadi writes out the abjad, the lines is s?l?s (thuluth), scripts numer since the tenth The sequence of Arabic letters according to their canonized century. intervening lines show the same but ical value from one to one thousand (fig. 8, the two second and third sequences nesih lines at lower left). in a smaller scale and different script, (naskh); an the reduction in size allows one to see various means The preservation of these mufrad?t in album sig to the letters of the nals their value to Sultan cAliMashhadi as specimens, of linking the letterf?c alphabet. were This of is the work of but before they entered that context they pre example m?fred?t Abd?lbaki, used whose the verb form to sumably among a panoply of written models by signature employs mashaqa intention of the work as students. Masters continued to pen these exercises indicate the practice (hence noun which is rendered mesk in Tur over their career to maintain their capacity to per theArabic mashq, Cen form writing. The practice of calligraphy in Iran, kish). and areas where Persian was Two additional from a collection of tral Asia, Afghanistan, pages m?fred?ts a the efforts of Abdullah the predominant language, has left few examples (fig. 10) represent Seyyid (d. ic?zet in well known as a student of such exercises, the majority bound into albums of 1731; obtained 1690), more Osman to absorb the the Timurid and Safavid dynastic periods. Many of Hafiz (1642-98), technique of his master direct Like the examples demonstrating the process of learning callig through pedagogy.38 pre are in the lands their formalized involves the raphy through duplication preserved ceding example, protocol of two s?l?s and of the Ottoman Empire, especially from the late 1500s simultaneous practice scripts, nesih, to written in sizes but the same to the modern period. The Ottomans appear have contrasting following pat as no tern of letter in formalized the practice of calligraphy had culture configurations alphabetic sequence. are shown connected to the before them in the Islamic lands.34A more regimented The letters ha and j?m of other letters in one can also see the training system is also manifest in the development s?l?s; alphabet of letters written in the central line of nesih the ic?zet (literally, "license" in Turkish; ij?za inArabic single

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "the eye is favored for seeing the writing's form" 285

Ottoman 17th-18th and on Fig. 9. Incomplete m?fredat by Abd?lbaki, Turkey, century. Opaque pigment, ink, gold paper, 20.2 30 cm (folio). Nasser D Khalili Collection, CAL290-299. (Photo: The Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

on the upper page of the opening. In addition to writing these letters in simple and compound form, Seyyid Abdullah has executed the customary vocaliza tion symbols, showing the short vowels (damma, fatha, kasra). Other exercises often added more symbols that helped with reading, including those indicating intensification or a doubled consonant (shadda) and silence (suk?n). When the requirements of the m?fredat had been mastered, the student moved on to another exercise (m?rekkeb?t),which tested his capacity to make com forms from to combine these words pound letters, in in into lines, and to write lines succession satisfy ing visual array. A number of different texts could be selected for the content of the m?rekkeb?t. In examples made at the end of the student calligrapher's process as a demonstration to the teacher that all of training, of were the exercise would aspects writing mastered, a open with basmala (bism Allah al-rahm?n al-rahim,

Ottoman Fig. 10. M?fredat album signed by Seyyid Abdullah, on Turkey, 18th century. Opaque pigment, ink, and gold paper, 20.5 29.8 cm (folio). Nasser D Khalili Collection, MSS191. (Photo: The Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 286 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

in from 12. album Mehmed after a model Fig. 11. Opening invocation and prayer joined letters Fig. M?fred?t signed by Vasfi, a Hafiz Ottoman 1784-85. m?fred?t album, Ottoman Turkey, 17th-18th century, opaque by Osman, Turkey, Opaque pigment, on cm and on 16 23.7 cm Nasser D Khalili pigment, ink, and gold paper, 18.5 27.3 (folio). Nasser ink, gold paper, (folio). D Khalili Collection, MSS297. (Photo: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection, MSS333. (Photo: The Nasser D Khalili Collection Collection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation) of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

text In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merci The degree of standardization in and general exercises is ful) and the calligraphier's common prayer asking for format of Ottoman-period practice high ve tem another of God's assistance, Rabbi yessir, l?tuassir, Rabbi, lighted by example m?fred?t (fig. 12), by mim hi -hayr (O Lord, make things easy and do not the calligrapher Mehmed Vasfi (d. 1831), who followed make them difficult. O Lord, make everything come a prior master's example (obviously by studying his was a out well),39 which would be followed by the alphabet models on paper). This completed not as licens and continue with the texts constituting the body of ing process but rather seventeen years after Mehmed an the m?rekkeb?t.40At the end, though not in the spe Vasfi was already licensed, indication that practice a career and that a well-sea cific example illustrated (fig. 11), witnesses would sign continued throughout master was in the the exercise, attesting that the calligrapher's formal soned still interested confronting of a in this case the training was now complete. Though the calligrapher challenge historical antecedent, Osman Cal of this example has used nesih and s?l?s for the body Ottoman calligrapher Hafiz (d. 1698).41 over their of the exercise, the beginning segments also employ ligraphers made m?fred?t and m?rekkeb?t nqa. The exercise as a whole is thus a distilled cata lives as a way to rehearse and maintain their ability. some ended in the hands of logue, a virtual microcosm, of the range of challenges Presumably of these up who used them as and others came calligraphers confronted when writing. students models,

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "the eye is favored for seeing the writing's form" 287

Rasm of Muhammad Bahram Fig. 13. Two pages from the al-khatt (Canon Calligraphy) by Majnun Rafiqi Haravi, copied by ink on YY. fols. of in 1551-52 in Iran. Opaque pigment and paper. Topkapi Palace Museum, 599, 21b-22a. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul)

of into the possession of collectors who sought fine his Majnun Rafiqi Haravi (d. after 1549) in honor the Timurid Muzaffar Mirza.44 The text torical examples. prince Husayn verse Some practice sheets are marked with the teach (fig. 13) alternates between discussions in about er's interventions, written in red or black ink. These the six styles of calligraphy and images set apart from cor text include rhombic points (nuqt), which show the the showing the configuration of individual let ters. Here the letters of the an arma rect proportional relations between letters, and thin, alphabet carry deft strokes that reveal laterally organized correspon ture of dots and lines?differentiated from the main are dences between the words strung together in a line.42 text by another color of ink?and introduced in use term The rhombic points are the diamond-shaped dots left their stand-alone form by captions that the a a form" the by the pen when pressed in stationary mode against "taking (tashakkul); intervening texts, the paper and then released and lifted away. Since the composed as rhyming couplets, describe features of codifications of Ibn Muqla (d. 940), who applied geo the letters in their simple and then their compound a canon on two in metric principles to of scripts dubbed the "six forms. Thus, the pages illustrated fig. 13, on scripts" (al-aql?m al-sitta) and invented "proportioned the captions written in red, gold, and blue the read: "in this order" in script" (al-khattal-mans?b), scripts had been closely reg right-hand page (bar tart?b), ulated by systems that defined a proportional relation "on the form of the^W (dar tashakkul-ifirn), and "in a other in on between standard?the letter alif-?and every thismethod" (bar nahj); and those the left read letter (which related to the dimension of the alif, itself "by this quantity" (bar in cadad), "on the form of the assembled from a fixed number of dots, by a series ra" (dar tashakhul-i ra), "in this style" (badin tarz), "by of ratios).43 The teacher's emendations to a student's this foundation" (badin as?s), and "on the form of the work thus renders whichever proportional systemwas sm" (dar tashakkul-i sin).45 Additional notations indi cate as in in place visible as a series of rhombic points. the form and hence position of the letter, or anno Comparable graphic techniques are used to dia "simple" (mufrad) and "compound" (tarklb), manu tate a formal for "allowed to gram the shape and interrelation of letters in specific feature, example, als of calligraphic instruction chronologically earlier fall" (mursal), "slender in the body" (zamr), "brought or "attenuated" than m?fred?t and m?rekkeb?t.One isRasm al-khatt (The near" (marfu), "bow-shaped" (qawsi), Canon of Calligraphy), originally written in 1504 by (muzammar).

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DAVID J. ROXBURGH

and on 16.8 Fig. 14. M?rekkebat in s?l?s and nesih by Mehmed ?evki Efendi, Istanbul, 1863, opaque pigment, ink, gold paper, Sabanci Sabanci 26 cm (folio). Sakip Sabanci M?zesi, Istanbul, 216. (Photo: University, Sakip Museum)

Called "measurement of the letters" (Arabic miy?r A similar technique of proportional and spatial men on al-hur?f), rhombic points are written calligraphies suration is found in three other pages by Mehmed an as either solid or empty circles to make proportional ?evki Efendi, from album of his m?fred?t exercises relations visible to the eye. Such dots were added not (figs. 15 and 16).46 These pages, too, bear the callig as a rather as a form of marks as an of dots and lines. The correction but proportional rapher's apparatus scaffold. One is a mesk a series of executed rhombic dots and dashes a example among carefully provide set m?fred?t and m?rekkeb?t exercises by Mehmed ?evki complete of guidelines for the relative proportion to of the between and the Efendi (1829-87), which he presumably made give letters, spaces letters, seating. The lines "the letters are at the to one of his students for the purpose of instruction reading completed..." (fig. 14). The upper and lower lines are in s?l?s. respective top and bottom of fig. 14 and fig. 15 show were identical instructions for minor The upper one reads, "The letters finished measurement, despite mer text are from with the help of God the king, the mighty, the changes in the (Allah and al-azlz missing bi-awn Allah al-malik al-aziz the in ciful" (Tammat al-hur?f phrasing fig. 15). al-ra?f), while the lower one is the alphabet given Yet another example showing micy?r al-hur?f is from are two a set of m?rekkeb?t exercises written in order of numerical value. Between them twenty-four-page The lines in nesih proclaiming God's unity and citing a tra inOttoman taliq by Haci Nazif Bey (1846-1913). dition of cAli b. Abi Talib. ?evki's annotations in red text consists of the Hilye-i h?k?ni, an ode describing offer a complete armature for his writing by show the Prophet Muhammad (fig. 17),17 copied in "emu its of measurement and relation. lation" of a model Yesarizade Mustafa ?zzet ing system Many (taklid) by measure out of in of these annotations the length lig Efendi (d. 1849). Each line of text,written black ink, to left in atures and the distances be between adjacent is annotated with lines and dots red thatmap the vertical strokes, or establish the relative depth of adja precise proportional system developed by Yesarizade; cent in the sublinear their seat text lines are notations that stand letters region (i.e., separated by curving In out the ing). for the phrase "persevere" (sacy). writing

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM" 289

a Ottoman 1866-67. Fig. 15. Opening from m?fred?t album in s?l?s and nesih by Mehmed ?evki Efendi, Turkey, Opaque pig on 19 cm Nasser D Khalili fols. 9b-10a. The Nasser D ment, ink, and gold paper, 10 (folio). Collection, MSS239, (Photo: Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

Hilye-i h?k?m, Haci Nazif Bey has revealed the pro replication and duplication in the practice of Islamic and conventions of seat whether or it portional system, spacing, calligraphy, Timurid, Safavid, Ottoman, ing letters that he learned through the patient visual would be inaccurate to assume that this was so. Practice norms study of Yesarizade's models. His exercise is not only involved the absorption of rules and in the art a facsimile of Yesarizade's writing but is annotated of writing by repeated rehearsals in such a way that so as to share with others the principles of the mas a calligrapher could, and indeed would, reproduce a or to make a ter's calligraphy. teacher's another calligrapher's mode facsimile of the original. Command over technique per mitted writing to be executed at will at different scales CODA and in different scripts. This qualitative difference is noted by Shams al-Din Muhammad Vasfi when he Though all of the aspects of practice and training opines, "Calligraphy by the destitute is [like] potsherds stone. highlighted here suggest the near-tyrannical hold of and pieces of Calligraphy by the eminent has

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 290 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

a in Mehmed Ottoman 1866-67. Fig. 16. Page from m?fredat album s?l?s and nesih by ?evki Efendi, Turkey, Opaque pigment, on cm Nasser D Khalili fol. 10b. The Nasser D Khalili ink, and gold paper, 10 19 (folio). Collection, MSS239, (Photo: Collection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

an Nazif after Yesarizade Mustafa late 19th to Fig. 17. Two pages from album of m?rekkeb?t by Haci Bey, ?zzet Efendi, Istanbul, ink on 31.6 23.2 cm Sabanci 226. early 20th century. Opaque pigment and paper, (folio). Sakip M?zesi, Istanbul, (Photo: Sabanci University, Sakip Sabanci Museum)

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "the eye is favored for seeing the writing's form" 291

letters a album Omer Vasf?, Ottoman 1784. ink, and Fig. 18. Texts in joined concluding m?fred?t by Turkey, Opaque pigment, on 19.5 27.4 cm Nasser D Khalili Collection, MSS68, fol. 9a. (Photo: The Nasser D Khalili Collection gold paper, (folio). of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

in letters a album Osman Selim, Ottoman 1779. ink, Fig. 19. Texts joined concluding m?fred?t by Turkey, Opaque pigment, on cm Nasser D Khalili Collection, MSS293, fol. 17a. (Photo: The Nasser D Khalili Col and gold paper, 15.3 22.7 (folio). lection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 292 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

Practice in Fig. 20. Practice exercise in Hqa by Baysunghur, Herat (?), Fig. 21. exercise r?qa by Muhammad Sultani, Herat, on cm Ink on cm before 1433. Ink paper, 25 33 (sheet). Topkapi Pal 1459. paper, 41.8 30.6 (folio). Topkapi Palace ace Museum, H. 2152, fol. 21b. (Photo: courtesy of Topkapi Museum, B. 410, fol. 180b. (Photo: courtesy of Topkapi Palace Palace Museum, Istanbul) Museum, Istanbul)

the value of pearls and rubies."48 But technical prow elsewhere in the album comprise sayings attributed to ess did not obviate an individual's inflection?Baba such figures as cAli b. Abi Talib, including "Calligra Shah Isfahani's "imaginative practice"?whether in phy is concealed within the teaching method of the adjustments made to proportional systems or through master. Its essence is in frequent repetition, and it other means. exists to serve Islam."49 Two Ottoman mesks, which are part of albums of The two specimens follow shared principles of m?fred?t exercises by Omer Vasti and Osman Selim that breaking the texts and arranging them on lines.50 to are It is that each date, respectively, 1784 and 1779, copies of the clear, however, calligraphier?Osman same Arabic text, written in nesih and s?l?s (figs. 18 Selim was Omer Vasfi's son?finds a different solu and 19). The upper line on each page includes the tion to ending each line on the page and to joining more end of the alphabet organized according to numerical certain letters. While Osman Selim follows a sequence, followed by "May God be blessed, the best normative connection between the letters ghayn and Allah ahsan a of the creators" (Fa-tab?raka al-kh?liqin). l?m, for instance, Omer Vasfi utilizes feature of writ The lower line contains the prayer, "Glory to You, ing termed "chained" (musalsal) by writing the ghayn O God, in Your praise may Your name be blessed" in its stand-alone form and sweeping back its sublin (Subh?naka All?huma wa bi-hamd?kawa tab?raka ismuka). ear curve to connect to the letter l?m next to it. This convention was common in such as and Phrases between these majuscule s?l?s lines here and scripts nq?c

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "the eye is favored for seeing the writing's form" 293

tawqi:, used mostly in the chancery for official cor respondence, but it could also be applied in a vari ant form of s?l?s. Another readily visible distinction between the two mesks is in the spacing at the end of the upper line: where the father evenly spaces the letters of the final word "creators" (al-kh?liqm) and expands the final letter nun so it tails off and falls away, the son compresses the letters l?m, q?f, ya and nun and pulls them up above the preceding four let a ters, alif, l?m, kh?\ and alif. The overall effect is of word deliberately compacted to contrast with itsopen ness in the father's If one were to specimen. expand this comparison through a minute, detailed descrip tion, the two lines would in addition reveal subtler differences that are responsible for the overall quite different effect of the two mesks. The uppermost line in each of two further speci mens (figs. 20 and 21) reproduces the saying "Bless ings coalesce around gratitude," already seen in the calligraphic exercise in riq?c copied by Ahmad al Rumi and responded to by fourteen other calligra phers, including the Timurid prince Baysunghur (fig. 4). One of these two specimens (fig. 20) represents effort to write the as a stand-alone Baysunghur's phrase exercise, either before or after the group endeavor.51 The other (fig. 21) is a practice exercise signed by Muhammad al-Sultani, completed in 1459 in Herat.52 The exercise initiated by Ahmad al-Rumi does not sug gest its process of making through aspects of materi this was at the of an ality; multiple presented beginning Fig. 22. Two pages from album of m?rekkeb?t exercises in as a to this essay way confront the commonly accepted s?l?s and nesih by al-Hacc al-eArif, Turkey, 1896-97. Opaque and on cm notion that Islamic calligraphy involves the removal pigment, ink, gold paper, 23.18 32.39 (folio). Art Arthur M. Sackler the Edwin of the individual from the finished product by deny Harvard Museum, Museum, 3rd Collection of Turkish Art at the Harvard Art ingwriting's indexicai function. It is clear thatmanip Binney, an Museum, 1995.829. (Photo: Katya Kallsen ? President and ulations do not take place within the shaping of Fellows^^^^^ of Harvard College) individual letter, and that proportional relations gov ern relations between letters. This is true whichever context or strand of Arabic-script tradition one looks east or west. relations were third from the bottom). His line went to, (These proportional upper quite but in the lower one the stroke by no means static and were changed by calligraphers smoothly, ascending of the letter was which had the over time; the new systemswere imparted to their stu k?f insufficiently steep, unfortunate effect of too into the dents and from them to their students; alternatively, penetrating deeply at some area above the next letter. As a correction, proportional systems could be reconstructed Payanda Darvish retraced the stroke of the One chronological distance as a calligrapher sought out ascending k?f. other of line a individual past models to emulate). example repetition by single amid the exercise. Three lines And yet, clearly, no two calligraphers' responses appears group signed to the model of Ahmad al-Rumi were the same, and by Hajji Muhammad?two at the bottom right followed one at an their reenactments of his line met with varying levels by the top left?show unwavering fluidity. of success. The closest to failure are two lines written Each of the three lines shows various degrees of rela to as by Payanda Darvish at the bottom left (second and tion Ahmad al-Rumi Hajji Muhammad plays with

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 294 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

the length of ligatures joining letters, the arrangement of dots marking phonetic value, and the presence or absence of short vowels. One could contend that the lines in ?qa are equally as "autographic" as the "sig natures" to them. These reveal adjacent examples that a way of inscribing individuality in calligraphy was through the manipulation of ligatures (termed in Arabic and Persian madd, mashq, and kashlda) as well as through the apparatus of dots and dashes supply ing phonetic values and vowels. This was one means of embodying the self and individual movement in an art form of closely regulated norms. It is also possible to see those daunting rhombic dots in a related way, as satisfying the desire to perceive human movement inwriting (fig. 22). While they can understood as an armature of measurement certainly be supplied to calligraphy specimens with the intention or secrets?two of revealing uncovering the master's so down, three across, and forth?they also provide the means of segmenting the calligrapher's physical move ?> an Fig. 24. Pages from album of specimens in sh?kasta by cAbd on al-Majid, Isfahan, dated between 1767 and 1770. Ink paper, 20 29.8 (folio). Nasser D Khalili Collection, MSS391, fols, la and 2a. (Photo: The Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, ? The Nour Foundation)

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM" 295 ment. Much like the filming of Jackson Pollock's drip NOTES other from modernism's paintings?or any example note: This started out as a lecture that I of movement"53? Author's essay presented of "mechanical inscriptions history in in a series move at Princeton University January 2007, cosponsored miy?r al-hur?f have the effect of dividing the by the Institute for Advanced Study and the Department of Art ments of into units that can be in writing perceived and Archaeology, Princeton University. I would like to thank Yve one succession. The dots, after the other, register the Alain Bois and Hal Foster for their invitation. Oleg attended the lecture and dinner and was curious and fluid lines of writing against a quantifiable grid akin characteristically gener ous with his The in the title is Khvan to a time-motion Here, that study slows writing suggestions. quotation by study. m ir see nn. 17 and 19 below. on da (d. 1535): down to provide its viewer with a perspective prac 1. Oleg Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament (Princeton: Prince tice the direct observation of its maker beyond original ton University Press, 1992), 59. and strokes not are often at work. The system of applied dots 2. Auditory dimensions of calligraphic practice addressed in the of literature that around the only segments the apparently continuous line of the body grew up and of In one of the most calligrapher but annotates the intervals between his production reception calligraphy. common themes, inspired by the exordium ("The Song of letters and words and their relative seating. the Reed") inMawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi's Masnav?-i ma'navl A final two cImad al-Hasani a examples, by (before (Couplets of Meaning), link is drawn between the reed 1600) and cAbd al-Majid (between 1767 and 1770), pen and the reed flute. In Sufi imagery, the flute makes its lament because it has been taken from the reed bed: offer another pathway to the perception of movement Now listen to this reed-flute's lament (figs. 23 and 24) ,54Their comparative "expressivity" deep about the heartache being apart has meant: when seen in relation to other examples illustrated Since from the reed-bed they uprooted me in this is of less interest than their essay arrangement My song's expressed each human's agony, at off axis to the format of writing angles rectangular A breast which separation's split in two a Is what I to share this with of the sheet or in opposed directions: viewed from seek, pain you: some When from their true origin, all yearn single position, of this writing appears upside kept For union on the can return. down. Such as these, the late 1500s day they examples spanning trans. (Jal?l al-D?n R?m?, The Masnavi, Book One, Jawid Mojad to the late 1700s, a mode of visual prompt haptic dedi [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004], 4). The reed that a tactile of and that ity, is, way seeing knowing wails because it desires to be reunited with its primal origin. engages the viewer's body inmovement. To read the The analogy was obvious enough for writers about calligra or For this and other of sound-related in writing, the viewer is required physically to move, phy. aspects imagery see an to poetry about Islamic calligraphy Annemarie Schimmel, imaginatively to rotate image of the calligraphy Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York: New York Univer a readable axis. The kinesthetic properties of writing sity Press, 1984), 120-21. are also enacted variations in the size of writ through 3. One of the few scholars to study this aspect of writing and a and ing, feature of the macrographic micrographie the flow of ink is Vlad Atanasiu, "Le retroencrage: Deduc that has the immediate effect of suggesting foreground tion du ductus d'une ?criture d'apr?s l'intensit? de l'encre," or Gazette du livre medieval 37 (2000): 34-42. and background, depth in space. 4. For a discussion of the historical practice of making siy?h mashq The examples of calligraphy and extracts from in Iran see Maryam Ekhtiar, "Practice Makes Perfect: The Art written sources here suggest how Islamic presented of Calligraphy Exercises (Siy?h Mashq) in Iran," Muqarnas 23 can be understood to involve the calligraphy inscrip (2006) : 107-30. Firuz Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla I, to whom this act was work is was son of crown tion of the body in the of writing, whether it attributed, the Qajar prince 'Abbas a set Mirza and the of the second ruler, Fath cAli experienced by its historical viewers through grandson Qajar Shah He was of Fars, southern Iran, of localized variations, the manipulation of (r. 1797-1834). governor through from 1835 until 1853. a mode of interval?as pattern-based recognition?or 5. The clearest sign of this conceptual change?of a transition These were the a through general composition. primary from practice to virtuosity and to discernable calligraphic structures that calibrated the and in own a visual eye body genre in its right?is corpus of siy?h mashqs mounted over course in the "St. Album." The are the pleasure of seeing calligraphy the of Petersburg calligraphies signed by an set cImad al-Hasani, but only one is dated (equivalent to 1612-13). its history, or, to paraphrase Plato in Arabic The others are assumed to date from his period of activity ting, these were the means by which "handwriting from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. For the senses."55 deployed illustrations and commentaries on these specimens see Oleg F. Akimushkin, The St. Petersburg Muraqqa: Album of Indian Architecture Persian Miniatures the 16th the 18th Department ofHistory ofArt and and from through Century and fIm?d al-Hasan? Leon Harvard University, Cambridge,MA Specimens of Calligraphy by (Milan:

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 296 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

of these ardo Arte, 1996), esp. pis. 96, 137, 140, 141, 144, 145, 148, 11. Blair's recent book (Islamic Calligraphy) is the epitome 159,162,163,166,167,170,183,186,187,189,192, 200, 221, taxonomic efforts and makes many new contributions while at the same time some of the and incon 225, 233, and 237. Some of clmad al-Hasani's specimens from clearing up problems as this album are illustrated in Ekhtiar, "Practice Makes Perfect" sistencies of earlier scholarship. She identifies taxonomy a her aim to write a book about the (figs. 8, 11, and 12), alongside examples by him in other col prime objective, stating lections. Ekhtiar considers the works of clmad al-Hasani to be historical development of Islamic calligraphy (ibid., xxviii) and her with the "universalities" "the first extant 'artistic' siy?h mashq pages," which she argues contrasting approach (i.e., was Hossein Nasr and the trans he inspired tomake after visiting Ottoman territories in ahistoricism) sought by Seyyed historical taken Grabar in Mediation Orna 1594-95, when he saw Ottoman specimens of karalama. The approach by of as ment. her as one informed "the view primary changes that Ekhtiar identifies lending the siy?h Identifying approach by of a historian of Islamic she states that it causes mashqs the status of collectible works of art and not simply point art," an her to "miss much of the and fervor that practice exercises are increased incidence of signatures, passion calligraphy evokes both in the and the believer" the presence of dates, and a more "finished look," hence the practitioner (ibid.). are more of addition of illumination and borders ("Practice Makes Per These however, little than reductive categories the human and narrow of art as fect," 112). If the artistic transmission effected by Tmad al subject conceptions history Hasani is correct, it would still have to account for earlier, a discipline. 12. For a discussion of these sources and their see though rare, examples of siy?h mashqs from Iranian contexts, interpretation as a to an David the The Art His such specimen attributed Yaqut al-Mustacsimi in J. Roxburgh, Prefacing Image: Writing of in Iran Brill, For critical album made for Bahram Mirza before 1549 (see fig. 6 above tory Sixteenth-Century (Leiden: 2001). editions of several sources and their translation see and n. 27 below). This siy?h mashq carries no complete sig English name text at Wheeler M. Album and Other Documents on nature but does include a partial in the lower Thackston, Prefaces the and Painters (Leiden: Brill, 2001). left, which may be read: "written by Yahya bin." This ambig History of Calligraphers a more 13. Cited in Abu al-Tawhidi's treatise on the of uous phrase could be read as signature but is likely Hayyan practice which also contains numerous about a segment of the text, hence the possibility of applying the calligraphy, aphorisms its and value. See Franz Rosenthal, "Abu attribution to Yaqut. importance Haiy?n al-Tawh?d? on Ars Islamica 13-14 15. 6. Harvard Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Penmanship," (1947): al-Tawhidi was born ca. 926 and died after MA, 2006.119. Abu Hayyan mat 1009-10. 7. Most studies on Islamic calligraphy present the subject a 14. The are from Abu al-Tawhidi's treatise. See ter through historical framework constructed around the excerpts Hayyan Rosenthal, "Abu al-Tawh?d? on 11, 12, development of types of script, features of orthography, and Haiy?n Penmanship," and 17. Rosenthal notes that 'Abbas's cannot historical individuals credited with making important changes 13, identity or a be determined. Other sources attribute the same in calligraphic practice considered to have possessed yet saying to Allah b. al-cAbbas b. al-Hasan al-cAlawi (ibid., 11, good hand. A subset of this scholarship explores primary cUbayd an even . sources on the technical practice of calligraphy, with 88). 15. Pre-I s lamie Imru use khatt "to refer smaller subset devoted to exploring the various cultural val poets, including -Qays, in to the traces in the sand left abandoned while ues assigned to calligraphy at different periods the history by campsites," on as the Ibn Faris (d. 1004) defines of the Islamic lands. Oleg Grabar's chapter calligraphy eleventh-century lexicographer khatt as "the extended trace of a (Blair, Islamic an intermediary of ornament (in Mediation of Ornament) is [?th?r] thing" one of those uncommon studies that engage the visual and Calligraphy, xxv). 16. Ibn al-Bawwab's and its later are discussed aesthetic dimensions of Islamic calligraphy and ask questions poem reception David "The Commentaries of Ibn al-Bas?s and Ibn that exceed strictly taxonomic problems. by James, al-Wah?d on Ibn al-Baww?b's 'Ode on the Art of 8. Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Calligraphy' fi in Back to the Sources: Biblical and Near University Press, 2006), 7. (R?'iyyah 1-khatt)," a Eastern Studies inHonor Dermot ed. Kevin Cathcart 9. Each line concludes with a signature placed inside circle, of Ryan, J. and F. Glendale Press, 1989), 164-91. beginning with the customary formulas katabahu (written by), John Healey (Dublin: For the associated with the transmission of knowl k?tibuhu (his writing), mashaqahu (copied by), and harrarahu problems as about and the various means available to (penned by) : these seem to be used synonyms for writing edge calligraphy the see David "On the Transmission without registering any qualitative differences between calligraphers J. Roxburgh, an attribu and Reconstruction of Arabic Ibn al-Bawwab and calligraphy. The line by Ahmad al-Rumi carries Calligraphy: Studia Islamica 96 39-53. tive signature "specimen by Mawlana Ahmad al-Rumi" (khatt-i History," (2004): 17. discussion of these sources be found in Rox Mawl?n? Ahmad al-R?mi). Further discussion of this specimen Expanded may the 89-94. and its bibliography may be found in David J. Roxburgh, The burgh, Prefacing Image, esp. 18. Sultan cAli Mashhadi's treatise was cited verbatim in Persian Album 1400-1600: From Dispersal to Collection (New Qadi Ahmad's of and artists of Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 85-87. biographical history calligraphers other media. The text reads: "The aim of Mur 10. For a case study that confronts the same methodological pertinent see tada 'Ali in / Was not characters and dots / problem but looks at Chinese calligraphy John Hay, "The writing merely But virtue / And he to this Human Body as a Microcosmic Source of Macrocosmic Val fundamentals, purity, pointed by the of his Murtaza CAUaz khatt / na ues in Calligraphy," in Theories of theArts in China, ed. Susan beauty writing" (Gharaz-i hamin b?d va va / bal usui va va kh?b? bud / Bush and Christian Murck (Princeton: Princeton University lafz harf nuqt saf? zi ?n ish?n bi-husn-i khatt See Gulist?n-i Press, 1983), 74-102. faram?d). Qaz? Ahmad,

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THE EYE IS FAVORED FOR SEEING THE WRITING'S FORM" 297

va For an edition in see hunar: tazkira-yi khushniv?s?n naqq?sh?n, ed. Ahmad Suhayli Society 112 (1992): 279-86. Persian Naj?b Khv?ns?ii (Tehran: Intish?r?t-i Buny?d-i Farhang-i Iran, 1352 M?yil Harav?, ed., Kit?b ?ra? dar tamuddan-i isl?ml (Mashhad: [1973]), 65; trans, in V. Minorsky, Calligraphers and Painters: Ast?n-i Quds Razav?, 1372 [1993]), 207-36. are A Treatise byQ?d? Ahmad, Son ofM?r-Munsh? (circaAH. 1015/A.D. 30. The treatise and its terms and implications discussed by 1606) (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Ekhtiar, "Practice Makes Perfect," 110-11. Institution, 1959), 108. 31. Trans. Ernst, "Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy," 284. az az same 19. d?da shud s?rat-i khatt bahravar / dil b?d macnl-yi ? b? 32. The distinction between letter shaping and composition was khabar / s?rat va macn?yash pasand?da ast / nur-dih-i mardu made in the earlier writings of Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039), to as mak-i d?da ast (Roxburgh, Prefacing the Image, 92). also referred Alhazen. See Ibn al-Haytham, The Optics 20. har gawhar-i mur?d ki dar bahr-i khushdil? / parvarda-and jumla of Ibn al-Haytham: Books I-III, On Direct Vision, 2 vols., trans, in dar bahr h?sil ast / hamchun jam?l masKala afr?z-i d?da ast with introduction by A. I. Sabra (London: Warburg Insti ast / hamchun vassal khurram? and?z-i har dil (ibid., 93). tute, University of London, 1989), 1:201. Ibn al-Haytham at notes 21. Ibid., where the preface is discussed length, esp. 99-102. that composition could make calligraphy look beauti of Malik even were not 22. Further discussion Daylami's album preface may be ful when the letter shapes correct, indicating found in ibid., 33-34 and passim. in another way his highly relativist and subjective notion of 23. Ibid., 96-99 and passim. the perception of beauty. 24. Even the characterization of the somatic properties of East 33. The mufrad?t is bound into an album assembled for Safavid Asian as calligraphy, characterized by Blair, Islamic Calligra prince Bahram Mirza in 1544-45 by Dust Muhammad. The from studies of Chinese and is a was phy, 7, Japanese calligraphy, second sheet carries signature, "The practice completed for was on a ripe reappraisal. East Asian calligraphy based under the hand of the poor Sultan cAli al-Mashhadi?may his cor highly disciplined rhetoric of gesture that automatized sins be forgiven?in the abode of the sultanate Herat" and see poreal movement. On this Yukio Lippit, "Of Modes and an additional notation, "Its owner is Bahram." The paper also in Ink a Manners Medieval Japanese Painting: Sesshu's Splashed bears seal impression; though it is quite faint, two names? see Ink Landscape of 1495," (forthcoming). Also Thomas of Bahram and his father Isma'il?are discernable, as is the LaMarre, Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation date 935 (1528-29). and NC: Duke 34. there are Inscription (Durham, University Press, 2000). Though abundant specimens of calligraphy?many on 25. Rosenthal, "Abu Haiy?n al-Tawh?d? Penmanship," 14. of them practice exercises surviving in albums?made in Iran, ?i b? du zab?n sukhan amm? 26. turfa nig?r? qasab-i push / dar Central Asia, and Afghanistan in the period after the mid khamush / jilva-kun?n sarv-qadi s?ya s?y / gis?-yi shabrang kish?n 1300s continuing through the 1500s, the corpus lacks a con t?z az z?r-ip?y / t?r-qad? hamchu kam?n push / shab-i t?rik rukh-i sistent set of conventions. Though there are similarities in r?z push (Roxburgh, Prefacing the Image, 100). textual content?ranging from the mufrad?t and murakkab?t B. to 27. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum, 410, fols. 85b-86a and selections of Hadith, wisdom sayings, and verses from the For further details about this album assem in 127b. collection, Qur'an?and occasionally aspects of format, they lack the bled for Safavid prince Bahram Mirza in Tabriz before 1549, level of consistency and continuity evident among the Otto see Roxburgh, The Persian Album, 78-80, and David J. Rox man practice exercises. "Bahram Mirza and His in Art and 35. See M. Letters in Gold: burgh, Collections," Safavid Ugur Derman, Ottoman Calligraphy ed. Sheila R. British the Architecture, Canby (London: Museum, from Sakip Sabanci Collection, Istanbul (New York: Harry 31-36. N. 2002), Abrams, 1998), 42-43; Nabil F. Safwat, The Art of thePen: a on 28. Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima includes subsection calligra Calligraphy of the 14th to 20th Centuries (London and Oxford: phy where he writes about processes of calligraphy instruc The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions in tion Cairo. There, he states, the student learns "to draw and Oxford University Press, 1996), 40-45. Ekhtiar, "Prac as and form the letters well, he learns them by sensual per tice Makes Perfect," 109, notes the absence of a formalized ception (al-hiss), becomes skilled in them through practice production of ij?zas in Iran. in writing them, and learns them in the form of scientific 36. Several examples are illustrated in Derman, Letters in Gold, The An to norms" (Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah: Introduction Safwat, Art of thePen, and Mary McWilliams and David J. Rox trans. Franz 3 Pantheon History, Rosenthal, vols. [New York: burgh, Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, Books, 1958], 2:388-89). c. 1600-1900 (Houston and New Haven: Museum of Fine The text 29. presenting Sultan cAliMashhadi's advice reads: Arts, Houston, and Yale University Press, 2007). of Collect the writings the masters, 37. Practice through duplication of a model is seen in earlier a at throw glance this and that. specimens of calligraphy, of the 1300s and 1400s, even if no For a source whomsoever you feel natural attraction, written specifically highlights this procedure. A num must not at besides his writing you look the others, ber of calligraphies either evidence a direct imitation after or use So that your eye should become saturated with his a model language in their colophons that indicates writing, this intention. For examples and further discussion see Rox and because of his writing each of your letters should burgh, The Persian Album, 57-59. a become pearl. 38. The m?fred?t is published by Safwat, Art of thePen, cat. 9, with trans. an (Q?z? Ahmad, Gulist?n-i hunar, 73; Minorsky, Calli extensive biography of Seyyid Abdullah. and For Baba Shah ?d?b al 39. This graphers Painters, 117). Isfahani's is the translation of the prayer rendered by Derman, mashq see Carl Ernst, "The Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy: Baba Letters in Gold, 126. Shah theAmerican Isfahani's ?d?b al-Mashq," Journal of Oriental 40. Published and discussed in Safwat, Art of thePen, cat. 7. Safwat's

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 298 DAVID J. ROXBURGH

a catalogue entry includes complete summary of the textual mentary see Sal?h al-D?n al-Munajjid, J?mi mah?sin kitab?t content. al-kutt?b: Jama ahu wa katabahu bi-khattihiMuhammad b.Hasan on 41. For additional biography Mehmed Vasfi see Safwat, Art of al-T?b? min al-qarn al-?shir al-hijr? (Beirut: D?r al-Kit?b aljad?d, thePen, 21. Commenting on Mehmed Vasfi's working after 1962). of Hafiz Osman's model, Safwat observes "a licensed master 45. The opening illustrated is from the section the treatise an the would still take pride in copying the work of illustrious where Majnun Rafiqi Haravi describes the "qualities of predecessor," and that such forms of exercise were not con mufrad?t" (aws?f-i mufrad?t). to fined the practice of calligraphers in the early stages of 46. Published and discussed at length in Safwat, Art of thePen, their careers (ibid.). cat. 12. 42. An illustration of a teacher's corrections to a student's work 47. Hakani Mehmed Bey (d. 1606) composed the poem. The on appears in Derman, Letters in Gold, 4. This notion of string text the pages illustrated (trans. Derman, Letters in Gold, a manner to a ing words together, in comparable that of jew 154), reads: to eler, is frequently invoked through poetic metaphor in Ara His moonlike forehead brings as bic, Persian, and Turkish written sources, in the saying mind the Qur'an chapter of victory. to His like its besmele. attributed Jacfar b. Yahya cited above. long eyebrows 43. A discussion of the nature and context of Ibn Muqla's reforms With however much subtlety, of Ara Critics cannot is presented by Yasser Tabbaa, "The Transformation convey How the of the bic Writing: Part 1, Qur'anic Calligraphy," Ars Orientalis 21 eyebrows Prophet as a source are God's (1992): 119-48. Proportionality came to be viewed like the indicator of unity. a two drawn swords. of beauty in itself from the tenth century onward. For review They look like the has created his of the key developments see Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn God Transcendent beauty. on "Per The crescent is the ultimate of the moon's al-Haytham, 2:99-101. Ibn al-Haytham's section beauty. references 48. va va khatt-i ?sh?n ception of Beauty" (1:200-24) contains several Khatt-ifaqir khazaf-rizah?st sangp?rh? shar?fi a on durar va la all the to calligraphy. As Sabra remarks, it is study beauty purbah? (Roxburgh, Prefacing Image, 101). to Trans. Art the that is "remarkable for its consistent approach" beauty 49. Safwat, of Pen, 26. Ibn are in Art the cat. nos. "from an exclusively aesthetic point of view" (Optics of 50. Both albums published Safwat, of Pen, of 10 and with extensive information. al-Haytham, 2:97). Key aspects of the aesthetics proportion 11, biographical are 51. Palace H. fol. 21b. The developing from the tenth century onward discussed by Istanbul, Topkapi Museum, 2152, Ornament three lines below the are a "Writ G?lru Necipoglu, The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and aphorism signature reading, H. ten weak servant who is in need of the kind one, in Islamic Architecture, Topkapi Palace Museum Library MS by the God, his end 1956 (Santa Monica, CA: Getty Center for the History of Art Baysunghur, may God make good." Palace B. fol. 180b. and the Humanities, 1995), chap. 10. 52. Istanbul, Topkapi Museum, 410, Alone: Clement Modern 44. The manuscript studied here is dated 959 (1551-52) and is 53. Caroline A. Jones, Eyesight Greenberg's 599. For ism and theBureaucratization the Senses and Lon housed in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, YY. of (Chicago text see of and 242-50. a Persian edition of Majnun Rafiqi Haravi's Harav?, don: University Chicago Press, 2005), 224 esp. on to a Kit?b arai dar tamuddan-i isl?m?, 159-81. This is not the ear I found Jones's work Greenberg offer productive use as annota to about the kinesthetic dimensions of liest dated example to the rhombic points parallel my thinking occurs tion to letters. A still earlier example in the prefa Islamic calligraphy. texts read and the in tory pages to Muhammad b. Hasan al-Tibi's J?m? al-mah?sin 54. The have been calligraphies published to Art the cat. nos. 15 and 51. kitabat al-kutt?b, a manuscript dated equivalent January Safwat, of Pen, is the fetter of the intel 11, 1503 and dedicated to Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri 55. The full anecdote is: "The calamus and the (r. 1501-16), wherein al-Tibi purports to reconstruct Ibn al lect. Handwriting is the deployment of the senses, is it" Bawwab's "method" (tarlqa). The unicum is in the Topkapi desire of the soul attained through (trans. Rosenthal, on Palace Museum, Istanbul, K. 882. For a facsimile with com "Abu Haiy?n al-Tawh?d? Penmanship," 15).

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:46:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions