Eme issue 1 · 2013 89 pp. 89-91. ISSN 2253-6337

Arabic

Typography. Andreu Balius Writing as drawing, Associate professor at Pompeu Fabra University word as image Graphic designer specialized in type design Member of AGI

Unlike Western writing, in calligraphy the im- being the mere record to become the pictorial representa- age of the written word has priority over the drawing tion through calligraphy, a development of writing that is Andreu Balius is a graphic designer of the individual letter, hence its evocative power is in much more than being the speaker of a sound signal. It specialized in type design. He’s a the force of the calligraphic image that issues from the could be said that, although in a slightly unorthodox way, member of AGI (Alliance Graphique ensemble, reinforced by including ornamental images. that music is to speech as calligraphy is to writing. Internationale), TDC (Type Direc- It is a quality with which many contemporary design- To write is to “illustrate” concepts through words, a tors Club), and ATypl (Association ers have been able to approach modernity. On the other way of “creating” and evoking images through the text. Typographique Internationale). He hand, the peculiarities of Arabic writing, besides con- In fact, poetry, as a literary genre pursues this end. Dif- founded his studio in Barcelona textual causes such as religious ones, have made it dif- ferent artists and writers have experimented with ob- in 1992, which also specializes in ficult to translate into typographic characters without jects and texts to create poetic relationships (see some typography and custom type design. succumbing to a “latinising” of its forms. For that rea- of Joan Brossa’s examples of visual poetry) or have In 2003 he established the digital son the current renaissance in design of Arabic fonts played with the composition of the verses with the aim foundry typerepublic.com, where he must be approached from the understanding of the cal- of creating graphic representations (as per the experi- publishes his fonts and corporate ligraphic origins and their cultural transcendence. ments of some artists, such as Joan Salvat-Papasseit or type design. He’s carried out type Junoy, of the historic vanguards). It should be recalled design projects for Victoria’s Secret, Key words: typography, Arabic caligraphy, writ- that the word “poetry” comes from the Greek poietes, Ferrovial, Instituto Cervantes and La ing, image, drawing, signs, design which means “he who creates or makes something.” Vanguardia. He’s an associate pro- In writing, calligraphy means elevating the idea of the fessor at Pompeu Fabra University What was first, voice or writing? message to the status of “poetic image”, of artistic im- (Barcelona) and has participated in age. The word calligraphy, from the Greek kallos (beauty, several international events, giving The need to communicate through signs is as old as good) and graphein (writing, stroke), exactly defines this conferences and workshops. He holds the need to establish some form of lasting record. idea. The Andalusi sage, Ibn Al-Sid from Badajoz (1052- a BA (Hons) in Design from the Uni- Enduring registry and oral expression have been 1127) defined calligraphy as the “procedure that allows versity of Southampton (UK). linked from remote times. Writing and speech are ac- transmitting language by means of writing, following a tivities that function in parallel and refer to the overall number of techniques whose end is to achieve clear, solid scope of language and its meanings. and beautiful writing”2. For the calligrapher Claude Medi- Most of the world’s great religions confer the verb avilla, calligraphy is just the “Art of writing beautifully”3. the capacity of creation. According to David McLagan1, the different myths that Relationship of calligraphy and typography try to explain the act of Creation in the different cultures co- incide in giving the word, speech, and verb creative force. The calligrapher Wan Hsi Chih establishes a dis- 01 In the Hebrew alphabet the letters are associated tinction between writing (handwriting) and calligra- MACLAGAN, DAVID: Mitos de la creación. to the human being since it is considered that they, phy: “Writing needs the meaning, while calligraphy Madrid, Debate, 1977, p. 29. the letters, have body, soul and spirit. The kaballistic expresses itself above all through form and gesture; 02 4 PUERTA VILCHEZ, JOSÉ MIGUEL: La Aventu- tradition maintains that the Hebrew alphabet served elevates the spirit and illuminates the emotions” . In ra del Cálamo, Edilux, Granada, 2007, p. 223. to create the world and in their names, their graphic this sense, as Mediavilla affirms, calligraphy is revealed 03 shape, their numeral value and their position within to be closer to painting than to literature. MEDIAVILLA, CLAUDE: Caligrafía. the alphabet (alef-Bet) find their reason for being. Its In our Western culture handwriting and calligraphy Valencia, Campgràfic, 1996. 5 04 twenty-two letters are also called “bricks of Creation.” have been displaced by the force of typography . Ty- Quoted in: MEDIAVILLA, CLAUDE. Op cit., 1. Indubitably language makes it possible for us to pography has evolved independently, straying from 05 “create” and “illustrate” concepts represented in an the idea of the continuous and fluid stroke, although it Taking writing as a generic concept, we distinguish different forms of writing: abstract manner under the form of words in our mind. has taken calligraphic forms as reference. This has not handwriting, calligraphic writing and The text is the record of oral language. The first writ- happened in the same way in other traditions, as is the typographic writing, depending on whether ten signs arise with the need of establishing some type case of the Arab culture. it is personal, with no other purpose than of record, a memory aid. Speech has the power to evoke Arabic writing, as opposed to that of Latin tradition, has to make a note or register a message (handwriting), writing pursuing an aesthetic meanings that are different from those evoked by writing. retained this inseparable relationship of handwriting and end (calligraphy) or with the use of The latter has, with the passage of time, gone further than calligraphic writing throughout the centuries. While in the combinable, movable types (typography). Writting · Andreu Balius 90 Translated articles

West, with the printing press, writing evolved towards the rhythm to the composition. Thus, the practitioner of Ara- representation of the letters based on the principle of mod- bic calligraphy has a number of resources to use with a ularity, thus understanding the letters as separate units, the single end: the visual representation of the word and, with Arabic writing never abandoned the idea of a whole in the it, the image that this word represents and symbolises. manner in which letters are combined to form words. This Al-Asyadi considers that the “elegance of the calligra- is a characteristic trait — a fundamental one — that the tran- phy lies in its uniformity, its embellishment, its shape, its sition to typography has endeavoured to maintain. splendour, in the harmonisation of white and black and in From our Western point of view, typography and cal- its beauty in maintaining the difference within the whole”9. ligraphy are different disciplines. Knowing calligraphy The value of representation given to writing, over affords a good foundation for designing alphabets, but other practices not allowed by religion, enormously en- it is not an absolutely necessary condition. The typeface hanced the role of calligraphy in the Islamic culture. As 06 designer is not necessarily a good calligrapher, and con- José Miguel Puerta explains, “Renouncing the use of PELTA, RAQUEL & MÉNDEZ, CARMEN: versely, a good calligrapher will not necessarily design images to transmit the various messages of the Revela- «Zapf. Elogio de la Arquitectura», Visual, n. good alphabets. Rarely do we find calligraphers that tion in the places of worship made calligraphy the art, 111. 11-2004, Madrid have successfully entered the world of typography. We par excellence, of those places. Caligraphy was responsi- 07 could point out Hermann Zapf as an exceptional case. ble for marking beautifully, with the solemnity and holy Here it is necessary to distinguish cal- 6 ligraphic script as handwriting from that For him calligraphy is the basis of all typography . aura of the sacred text, the most outstanding buildings which means to transcend the message Those who have delved in both fields are aware that and all types of objects.”10 Thus, calligraphy manages to and in which the calligrapher’s subjectivity they are very different things. Although, doubtlessly, waive the difference between abstraction and represen- contributes an essential value. 08 having some knowledge of calligraphy will help under- tation, being the text itself the element which evokes sa- The Arabic writing system developed in the stand the logic of some forms in the letters, especially cred images, and so, writing becoming a vehicle of Faith. Arabian Peninsula, belongs to the family of for drawing letters of classic style. Calligraphy has been used in architecture, not only Semitic languages and originated from the Calligraphy pursues the quest of formal beauty as a decorative and ornamental element, but as a re- Phoenician alphabet just as our Latin alphabet. It developed in the IV Century evolving from in texts through the expression of the handwritten sort to give a sense of transcendence and sacredness the Nabat alphabet. stroke. To the contrary, in typography the expressive- to places through the “represented” text. The straight, According to Hamid Safadi (en Islamic Cal- ness lies in the design of each letter individually, con- geometric strokes of the Kufic calligraphic style have ligraphy. (1978), London, Thames & Hudson), 11 the late development of the , ceived as a combinable unit. In typography, the result been the most used in decoration . It was in this same as opposed to other alphabets, is due to the of a given combination of letters does not depend as Kufic style that the first copies of the Koran were writ- nomadic condition of the Arabs who contin- much on the ability of the typographer (once the font, ten, which made it one of the favourites in architectural ued to rely on oral tradition as the best way of type and composition has been determined) as on the ornamentation for its symbolic value. retaining information and of communication. The expansion of is parallel to existence of a typeface that a font designer conceived This sense of unity, mentioned above, characteristic of that of Islam. The Koran was the first book and designed prior to its use. Calligraphy is a direct is reflected in its architectural applica- written in Arabic and it contributed to estab- act, an “interpretation” of the text in the strictest literal tion through a perfect integration of elements, in combina- lish the language and a system of writing that 7 became a sacred link to expanding the Faith. sense , while typography bases its reason for being in tion with other ornamental ensembles and with the archi- In this way, other cultures used Arabic script the repetition of combinable models (types). tectural forms themselves. In the Alhambra of Granada we not only as a religious expression but as a can find splendid examples of calligraphy applied to deco- system of representing their own language. The value of image in Arabic calligraphy ration which are exemplary of this unitary sense. Historically, several languages have been written with the Arabic alphabet, as was the This same idea of unity is also present in some cal- case of the Romance languages spoken by the Arabic writing8 is cursive by nature, since all its ligraphic compositions such as the calligram, in which a Mozarabs in the Iberian Peninsula and which forms are the result of the movement of the pen and clear figurative purpose is expressed. The pictorial and gave place to the texts called Aljamiados. Currently among the languages that use the the gesture of the hand. The fluid stroke is one of its figurative possibilities of the letters of the Arabic alpha- Arabic alphabet are Persian (Iran), Paxtu, main characteristics. The image of the written word bet — alifato — are carried to extremes in the calligram. Dari (Afghanistan) (India and Pakistan) has priority over the drawing of each of the individual Although we find examples of it in the Middle Ages, the Kurd (Irak), Javanese (Indonesia) and Uigur letters that make it up. This does not occur with the caligram acquired special importance in the beginning (China). The Arabic alphabet was also used to write Turkish until Kemal Pasha Atatürk took Latin alphabet in which the drawing of each character of the XIX Century, within the Ottoman calligraphic tra- power in 1923, when he promoted the use of determines the image of the whole. Since Arabic callig- dition, and with it, the resort of symmetrical unfolding the Latin system for writing in all of Turkey. raphy emphasises the form the word takes, it is capable of the calligraphic image through the effect of a mirror 09 See note n. 20, in Puerta Vílchez, José of modifying the aspect of the individual letters to ac- image. During this time calligraphy “acquired new ar- Miguel: Op. cit., p. 218. commodate them to the unitary image. This leads to tistic autonomy, understood as a picture in itself and as 10 the development of different solutions for each one of having a specific form with infinite possibilities.12 Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel: Op the letters of the alphabet according to their position in The value of the letter as an image, widely exploited as cit., p. 42. 11 the word (initial, middle, final or isolated). a resource in the Latin typographic and calligraphic tradi- There are several calligraphic styles through Besides, some letters can have alternative forms in- tion, could not be relegated to a second place in the Mus- which Arabic writing expresses itself, but dependently of their position. lim cultural scope. Given the importance of the written the main six are: Thuluth, , Muhaqqaq, Rayhani, Riqa’ and Tawqi’. The list could be The evocative power of Arabic writing lies in the cal- letter, as we have indicated, the graphic designers of the enlarged to include Maghribi developed ligraphic image that depends on how the symbols are Muslim countries have used and valued the calligraphic in North Africa and in Al-Andalus (in the joined, as it happens in some Asian writings. This image signs themselves as image. Far from limiting the use of Andalusi variant). is strengthened by the inclusion of symbols that are not typography, the great Muslim poster artists and graphic 12 Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel: Op. linguistic but whose function is essentially ornamental artists have worked with calligraphy in their graphic com- cit., p. 268. and are used to fill in and balance compositions affording positions, as opposed to Western graphic designers, who Eme issue 1 · 2013 91 pp. 89-91. ISSN 2253-6337

have used typography almost exclusively (as image or plex characteristics of the Arabic writing system. Until vehicle for the message) to solve communication prob- recently the Arabic multilingual fonts were a challenge lems. The work of graphic designers such as Reza Abedi- difficult to solve efficiently. Even so, today, there are few ni (Iran), Farhad Fozouni (Iran), Tarek Atrissi (Holland), typefaces that allow composing texts in Arabic without Nja Mahdaoui (Tunisia), Sam Moshaver (Iran), Mohamed resorting to a “Latinisation” of forms and proportions. Nabil Labib (Egypt) who have known how to carry cal- The need to have multilingual fonts that contain more ligraphic tradition to modern times meeting the needs of than one system of writing has contributed to the devel- contemporary communication. opment of more appropriate software. The firm WinSoft A new generation of designers within the Arab cul- has contributed enormously to the development and tural environment has seen the use of calligraphy as a adaptation of software for self-publishing. differential element that personalises and gives char- Due to this, the design of Arabic fonts has initiated a acter to their graphic work. In a global world, the use timid renaissance in the last few years. of calligraphy of Arabic typographic characters has If in our Western tradition, typography and calligraphy an important role when representing and identifying have followed parallel but distant roads, in the Arabic the design in Muslim countries. We find many multi- tradition typography cannot be understood if not in rela- lingual solutions where both writing systems — Arabic tion with calligraphy. For this reason the design of Arabic and Latin — are used. How easily the designers of Arab fonts cannot be approached without understanding their origin employ and integrate both alphabetic systems calligraphic foundations and the cultural transcendence. is surprising. In these examples, the modular and The image of the word as a unit has had to continue slightly geometric character of the Latin alphabet con- prevailing despite the fact that, when it is written with the trasts with the curved fluidity of the Arabic characters. use of a keyboard, we are assigning the symbols separate- ly. The fluidity of the stroke, a fundamental trait of writing, Value of typography in Arab design has to be achieved with good connection among the ini- tial, middle and final forms. The proportions of the Arabic The use of typography in the emerging Arab graphic alphabet itself must be maintained even though they are design is ever more important. To a certain point, due quite different from those of the Latin alphabet. The com- to the influence the West exerts as a technological and patibility between both alphabets — Arabic and Latin — cultural protagonist, the need the new generations have when they appear in the same text should be based upon of modernisation and also due to their need to position seeking optimum balance in colour and form, rather than themselves in the global world, typography is, for many forcing the proportions and structures of one to fit the designers synonymous of modernity. other. Some Arabic typeface designers have begun to This recent interest is due to the late introduction of contribute valid solutions to composition of multilingual the printing press in the Arab world, which took place texts. Not all of them are of Arab origin, in fact, most of in the beginning of the XVIII Century, although the them are European. We can point out the work of Fiona first Arab books printed with typefaces were published Ross, John Hudson and Tim Holloway in the develop- in Europe in the XVI Century13. The purpose of these ment of the vast Adobe Arabic font; or the fonts designed books was to promote and expand the Christian Faith. by Nadine Chahine (Koufiya), Titus Nemeth (Nassim) y There is no need to imagine the scant success achieved Kristyan Sarkis (Thuraya), among others. if we bear in mind that the function of Arabic writing In conclusion, it could be said that, in Arabic typog- was to preserve the words of Muhammad, the prophet. raphy, the value of the word as an image continues On the other hand, these books printed in Europe being a fundamental element, as it occurs with cal- could not compete with the exuberant beauty of the ligraphic script. The idea of writing as a continuous handwritten manuscripts carried out by the Arabic cal- stroke, a drawing, remains alive even when writing with ligraphers of the time. The typefaces created by the Eu- a keyboard and typographic characters. ropean engravers were far from producing the results Respecting the cultural legacy is a challenge as well as the Arab readers were willing to accept. a necessity, in the design of Arabic typefaces. The close connection between religion and writing — and calligraphy — is a weighty reason when explaining Bibliografía the late introduction of the printing press in the Arab countries. It also points out the reticence to the use of BLAIR, Sheila S.: Islamic calligraphy, Edinburgh: mechanic solutions as is typographic writing. Edinburgh University Press, 2008 Technology is another important reason for the late BOUTROS, Mourad & al.: Talking about Arabic, introduction of typography in the commercial environ- New York: Mark Batty publisher, 2009 13 ment. Up to now it has been tremendously difficult to PUERTA Vilchez, José Miguel: La aventura del The Kitab Salat al-Sawa’i, the first book print- ed with movable types, was a Book of Hours give efficient typographical solutions to the calligraphic Cálamo. Historia, formas y artistas de la caligrafía printed by Gregorio de Gregori in Venice in characteristics inherent to Arabic writing. árabe, Edilux ediciones, 2007 1514, and distributed among the Christians of Originally, digital technology developed under West- SAFADI, Yasin Hamid: Islamic calligraphy, London: the Oriental Catholic Church Melkite, with ern cultural parameters did not take into consideration Thames & Hudson, 1978 the purpose of the unification of the Eastern and Western churches. Francesco Griffo was the characteristics of writing systems other than Latin. SMITSHUIJEN AbiFarès, Huda: Arabic typography, the engraver of the Arabic typefaces used in Neither did font design programs consider the com- a comprehensive sourcebook, London: Saqi books, 2001 the book.