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You May View It Or Download a .Pdf Here “I put my trust in God” (“Tawakkaltu ‘ala ’illah”) Word 2012 —Arabic calligraphy in nasta’liq script on an ivy leaf 42976araD1R1.indd 1 11/1/11 11:37 PM Geometry of the Spirit WRITTEN BY DAVID JAMES alligraphy is without doubt the most original con- As well, there were regional varieties. From Kufic, Islamic few are the buildings that lack Hijazi tribution of Islam to the visual arts. For Muslim cal- Spain and North Africa developed andalusi and maghribi, calligraphy as ornament. Usu- Cligraphers, the act of writing—particularly the act of respectively. Iran and Ottoman Turkey both produced varie- ally these inscriptions were writing the Qur’an—is primarily a religious experience. Most ties of scripts, and these gained acceptance far beyond their first written on paper and then western non-Muslims, on the other hand, appreciate the line, places of origin. Perhaps the most important was nasta‘liq, transferred to ceramic tiles for Kufic form, flow and shape of the Arabic words. Many recognize which was developed in 15th-century Iran and reached a firing and glazing, or they were that what they see is more than a display of skill: Calligraphy zenith of perfection in the 16th century. Unlike all earlier copied onto stone and carved is a geometry of the spirit. hands, nasta‘liq was devised to write Persian, not Arabic. by masons. In Turkey and Per- The sacred nature of the Qur’an as the revealed word of In the 19th century, during the Qajar Dynasty, Iranian sia they were often signed by Maghribıi God gave initial impetus to the great creative outburst of cal- calligraphers developed from nasta‘liq the highly ornamental the master, but in most other ligraphy that began at the start of the Islamic era in the sev- shikastah, in which the script became incredibly complex, con- places we rarely know who enth century CE and has continued to the present. voluted and largely illegible to the inexperienced eye. produced them. Andalusi Calligraphy is found in all sizes, from colossal to minute, The Ottomans devised at least one local style that became We do know that such mas- and in all media, from paper to ceramics, metal, textiles and widely used: the extremely complex diwani, which was well ters of calligraphy were often architecture. It commenced with the writing down of the suited to expressing a complex language like Ottoman Turk- born to it. Once a young man’s Qur’an in a script derived from that of the Nabataeans. The ish, itself a hybrid of Turkish, Arabic and Persian. It was potential was recognized, FOUNDATION Jalıil al-muhaqqaq early scripts were bold, simple and sometimes rough. The used much in official chancery documents and firmans, or he would be apprenticed to NOUR scripts used from the seventh to the 11th century had origins decrees, which often began with the most imposingly ornate perfect the basic hands, learn THE in the Hijaz, the region of Makkah and Madinah in western calligraphic invention of the Ottoman chancery, the imperial ink-making and perhaps study OF Saudi Arabia. Historians group these into three main script tug˘ra, or monogram. paper-making and illuminating. Jalil al-thulth families: hijazi, Kufic, and Persian Kufic. We do not know when the idea of a freestanding composi- When he was considered good Hijazi is regarded as the prototypical Qur’anic script. It is tion based on a word, phrase or letter first arose. The first enough to work on his own, COURTESY a large, thin variety with ungainly vertical strokes. Kufic devel- separate such calligraphic composition was perhaps the phrase he would receive an ijazah, or 1996), Jalil al-tawqi‘ oped in the eighth century, and of all the early scripts, it is the bismillah al-rahman al-rahim (“In the Name of God, the license. Although in Europe the most majestic—a reflection of the stability and confidence of Compassionate, the Merciful”), which begins every chapter of scribal profession disappeared (LONDON, the early classical period of Islam. It was much used through the Qur’an but one. Due to the imbalance of the letters, this soon after the arrival of the pen the 14th century from Islamic Spain all the way to Iran, where turns out to be an awkward phrase to write well, and to this printing press at the end of the Riqa‘ the around the 10th century calligraphers developed Persian day can be a test of the calligrapher’s skill. The separate cal- 15th century, in the Middle of Kufic. The system of marking Arabic’s normally implied short ligraphic composition reached its ultimate development in the East printing did not become ar t the vowels and employing distinguishing dots, or points, is essen- 18th and 19th centuries, at the hands of Iranian and especially firmly established until the 19th Naskh tially that used today in modern standard Arabic. Ottoman calligraphers. century, and thus the profes- Western scholars and students have often used the term Such calligraphic composition became particularly impor- sion of the calligrapher largely FROM “cursive” to distinguish later, less angular scripts. However, tant when calligraphy departed from paper to appear on func- endured until then. tional objects. Some of the finest examples of this occurred Today, calligraphy contin- Rayhan medieval Muslim writers on calligraphy and the development REPRINTED of writing classified scripts other than Kufic into categories on 10th-century ceramics from the Samarkand area. Simple ues as a religious and artistic based not only on shape, but also on function: murattab, inscriptions in classical Kufic, always in Arabic, were applied practice. Outstanding calligra- ZAKARIYA, meaning curvilinear, primarily comprised scripts for courtly to the rims of plates and dishes, usually pure white in color. phers live throughout the Jali diwani and secular uses, including thulth, tawqi‘ and riqa‘; yabis, or The results, to western eyes at least, represent some of the world, and their works bring rectilinear scripts, comprised styles for Qur’anic and other most esthetically pleasing and exciting examples of applied the attention of the global MOHAMED sacred calligraphy, including muhaqqaq, naskh and rayhan. calligraphy. public to the supreme art of BY These are often regarded as the six major “hands” of classical But perhaps the most important application of calligraphy Islamic calligraphy. Arabic calligraphy. to objects is in architecture. Throughout the Islamic world, Shikastah SAMPLES (Adapted and edited from “The Cover: Before gilding this ivy leaf with a mixture of gold ink and gum arabic, the anonymous calligrapher painstakingly removed Geometry of the Spirit,” by David its dermal tissue until only the leaf’s skeleton remained. Dating to the 19th century, this piece is from Ottoman Turkey and mea- James, originally published in Aramco 7 8 sures 12.8 x 12.5 centimeters (5"x4 / "). Photo courtesy of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. World, September/October 1989.) CALLIGRAPHY Jali nasta‘lıiq 42976araD1R1.indd 2 11/1/11 11:37 PM It is he who made the sun to be a shining glory, and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for Patterns of Moon, Patterns of Sun her, that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time). —The Qur’an, Chapter 10 (“Yunus”), Verse 5 WRITTEN BY PA UL LUNDE The Hijri calendar This gives the lunar year 354 days, 11 days fewer than he created a solar calendar in which one day was added to In 638 CE, six years after the death of the Prophet Muham- the solar year. ‘Umar chose as the epoch for the new Mus- February every fourth year, effectively compensating for the mad, Islam’s second caliph, ‘Umar, recognized the necessity lim calendar the hijra, the emigration of the Prophet Mu- solar year’s length of 365.2422 days. This Julian calendar of a calendar to govern the affairs of Muslims. This was hammad and 70 Muslims from Makkah to Madinah, where was used throughout Europe until 1582 CE. first of all a practical matter. Correspondence with military Muslims first attained religious and political autonomy. The In the Middle Ages, the Christian liturgical calendar and civilian officials in the newly conquered lands had to hijra thus occurred on 1 Muharram of the year 1 accord- was grafted onto the Julian one, and the computation be dated. But Persia used a different calendar from Syria, ing to the Islamic calendar, which was of lunar festivals like Easter, which where the caliphate was based; Egypt used yet another. named “hijri” after its epoch. (This Though they share 12 falls on the first Sunday after the first Each of these calendars had a different starting point, date corresponds to July 16, 622 CE full moon after the spring equinox, or epoch. The Sasanids, the ruling dynasty of Persia, used on the Gregorian calendar.) Today in lunar cycles—months—per exercised some of the best minds in June 16, 632 CE, the date of the accession of the last Sasa- the West, it is customary, when writing solar year, the hijri calendar Christen dom. The use of the epoch nid monarch, Yazdagird III. Syria, which until the Muslim hijri dates, to use the abbreviation AH, uses actual moon phases 1 CE dates from the sixth century, conquest was part of the Byzantine Empire, used a form of which stands for the Latin anno hegi- to mark them, whereas the but did not become common until the Roman “Julian” calendar, with an epoch of October 1, rae, “year of the hijra.” the 10th. Gregorian calendar adjusts 312 BCE. Egypt used the Coptic calendar, with an epoch Because the Islamic lunar calendar The Julian year was nonetheless of August 29, 284 CE.
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