By definition, the term "Islamic calligraphy" refers to Arabic calligraphy and the arts that generally belong to the entire Islamic world. Arabic calligraphy has a very long history and has gone through several stages of evolution. The Arabic alphabets shows great similarities with the
Syriac or Nabatean alphabets, meaning the existence of calligraphy precedes Islam. Nabatean alphabets (as shown in Plate 1) are rudimentary characters without any indications of vowels or any systematical dotting system. To comprehend the meaning of a sentence in Nabatean script requires understanding the whole context of that sentence.1
Plate 1. Nabatean Calligraphy in Heran, Syria dated 518 C.E. (After Ahmad Ṣabrī Mahmūd Zāyid, Tārīkh Al-Khat Al-‘Arabī, p. 19).
The Nabatean alphabet consisted of twenty-two letters. However, during the era of the Righteous Caliphs of the early period of Islam (632-661 C.E.), six more letters were introduced, and dots were added to Nabatean characters for the purpose of clarity (as shown in Plate 2).2 From that point forward, Arabic script used diagonal strokes and small characters above and below its letters to indicate sounds and stresses on vowels (Plate 3).3
1 Burckhardt, T., Art of Islam: Language and Meaning, England: World of Islam Festival Publishing Company Ltd., 1976, p. 48.
2Khatibi and Sijelmassi, The Splendour of Islamic Calligraphy, Paris: Thames & Hudson, 1994, p. 38.
3 Venetia Porter and Heba Nayel Barakat, Mightier than the Sword – Arabic Script: Beauty and Meaning, Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2004.p. 22.
Plate 2. The earliest system developed by adding dots to indicate the sound of a letter. (After Ahmad Riḍā, op. cit., p. 163).
Plate 3. Vowels. (After Ahmad Riḍā, ibid., p. 167).
The development of Islamic calligraphy into what it has become today is indebted to great calligraphers who put their efforts into perfecting cursive scripts, especially Ibn Muqlah and Ibn al-Bawwāb. Ibn Muqlah (886-940), was a pioneer of the integration of geometry into cursive writing rules known as ṣahīb al-khatt al-manṣūb (master of the proportioned script), and gained fame for inventing a system of proportional writing based on the principles of geometric design (ḥandasah al-hurūf). His system of proportion was based on measurement by dots. The dot was formed by pressing the nib of the qalam (reed pen) on paper until it opened to its fullest extent, after which it was released evenly and rapidly. This technique produced dots resembling a rhombus. The size of the dot affected only the size of the writing; the relative proportions of letters remained constant for each individual script. Placing dots vertex to vertex, Ibn Muqlah then proceeded to straighten the Kufic letter Alīf, which is curved slightly to the right, and set it as his standard of measurement (Plate 4). The next step was to standardize individual letters of various secular scripts by bringing them into accord with geometric figures. By giving each letter a proportional relation (nisbah) to the letter Alif, Ibn Muqlah was able to construct a canon of proportions for the entire alphabet.4 This allowed the creation of a number of systematic methods or templates for each of the major scripts, which henceforth could be produced accurately to scale. The canonical scripts, known collectively as al-Aqlām al-Sittah, were Thuluth, Naskh, Muhaqqaq, Riq’ah, Tawqī’ and Raihān (Plate 5). Of all these scripts, Thuluth was to attain the greatest importance in view of its nearly exclusive use for monumental inscriptions and for sūrah headings in the Qur’ān. Naskh, originally a minor and somewhat disdained script because of its simplicity in reading, became the preferred style for literary manuscripts and small Qur’āns, especially during the Ottoman period, whereas Riq`ah was employed principally for correspondence.5
4See Safadi, Yasin Hamid, Islamic Calligraphy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978, pp. 16-18.
5Ibid, pp. 52-77.
Plate 4. Reconstruction of the method of Ibn Muqlah: Letters alif, lām, sīn, dāl, ṣād, and ‘ain. (After Y.H. Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy, p. 17).
Thuluth
Naskh
Muhaqqaq
Riq’ah
Tawqī’
Raihān
Plate 5. Examples of al-Aqlām al-Sittah. Khat Thuluth and Naskh were written by Fu`ad Istafan (After Ahmad Rida, op. cit., p. 120); Khat Riq’ah and Raihān were written by Kamil al-Baba (After Ahmad Rida, ibid., p. 118). For Khat Tawqī’ and Raihān, the khattāt is unknown (After Nājī Zain al-Dīn, op. cit., p. 101-102).
Ibn Muqlah developed the system of writing based on geometrical grids, while Ibn al-Bawwāb (d.1022) further improved it by making the scripts much clearer, more cursive, and more elegant. A small Qur’ān (Plate 6) attributed to Ibn al-Bawwāb, known as the earliest cursive Qur’ān, was written in fully cursive scripts. The two most important cursive scripts are represented in this manuscript: Naskh in the main body of text, and a variety of Thuluth in the opening folios and surah headings.
Plate 6. A small Qur’ān attributed to Ibn Bawwāb, known as the first to be fully written in cursive scripts. The Qur’an is kept in The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 1431, f.284a. (Yasser Tabaa, The Transformation of Arabic Writing: Part I, Qur’anic Calligraphy, p. 132).