Islamic Calligraphy

The Islamic Empire stretched from Eastern Africa and Southern Spain to Southeast Asia. The Islamic Empire lasted from the early seventh century until the late twelfth. The Islamic faith emphasizes the importance of seeking knowledge, making books, and libraries as important aspect of Islamic culture. Due to the fact that it is forbidden in Islam to create drawings or paintings of living creatures, calligraphy developed as an important style of art.

READING ARABIC SCRIPT

Harakat are small symbols set above and below the text to show what short vowel sound should be made when reading the script in question. Harrakat are usually dropped in writing with native speakers as the are expected to be able to understand the words in question from the context, however, the harakat are kept in Quranic text to show correct pronunciation. By simply changing the harakat one can change the meaning of the word.

 There are multiple types of harakat, below are the three most common harakat

Fatha, set above the text; Fatha causes the letter it is set above to say the short a sound

, Kasra, set below the text; Kasra causes the letter it

is set above to say the short i sound

Dhumma, set above the text; Dhumma causes the

letter it is set above to say the short u sound

 DISCERNING BETWEEN SIMILAR LETTERS A system of dots was utilized in order to distinguish between letters with similar basic shapes For example:

The letters J, H, and KH The letters B, T, TH, and N , The letters S and SH, and F and GH

There are many kinds of Arabic calligraphy, however, many are too similar or not used widely enough to do further research on. Ive included the four most distinct and widely used: Kufic, Naskhi and Riqah.
Maghribi script, the script used in Northern Africa and Spain; appears similar to both Naskhi and Kufic

Sini script, the script used in Islamic China

Kufic script: The earliest form of Arabic calligraphy, the lack of the harakat system made it difficult to read.

Naskhi or Naskh script: Basically the cursive form of Arabic. Naskh is used in the Quranic texts. Unlike Kufic script, Naskh script uses the Arabic vowel system, known as harakat. Ottoman Tughra: A royal seal of Ottoman emperors, Numerous names and titles are overlapped to create the overall shape.

Riqah or Ruqah script: Riqah scritp is the most commonly used form of handwriting. It is composed of short straight lines and small curves.

Quran written in early Kufic

Kufic script is one of the oldest styles of Arabic script. Early Kufic lacked the dots added in order to differentiate between letters with similar basic shapes. Kufic also (like some other scripts) lacks the use of the harakat system, paired with no way to distinguish between similar letters, early Kufic is difficult to decipher.

Modern Kufic with a maze-like quality; reads Muhammad

Kufic script is angular and blocky with small circle-like curve, and is quite often stylized with floral shapes

Modern Kufic is often based on rectangular shapes and right angles.

NASKHI
Naskhi (or Naskh) is probably one of the most widely used forms of Arabic script. It is easy to read and understand, and its graceful curves and elongated lines make it popular for calligraphy Most later Qurans are written in Naskhi Computers will usually type in a form of Naskhi
Chapter one of the Quran, Surat al Fatiha (The Opening) written in Naskhi script

Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem; In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Note the numerous harakat.

Simplified Naskhi written on a computer; Reads calligraphy in Arabic; note the lack of harakat.

Tughra of Sultan Mahmud II; reads: Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is Forever Victorious

The Tughra is a royal seal that originated in the Ottoman Empire. The classical Tughra has a distinct basic shape that was first seen with Sultan Suleiman The Magnificent. A Tughra will have two large loops on the left side and three tall verticle lines rising from the center, the bottom will have the names and titles of the sultan stacked on top of each other and two lines will extend from the right.

The Tughra of Sultan Orhan I, the first Tughra.

Tughra of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, first of the classical Tughra

RIQAH
Riqah (or Ruqah) style originated in the Ottoman empire around the late ninth century. Riqah is commonly used as a handwriting style due to its simplicity in both appearance and while writing. The dot system in the Riqah system is simplified to small strokes, one short one in the place of two dots and an incomplete triangle in the place of three. Certain letters in Riqah script will have their shapes changed, such as , which is changed into a strait line when in the middle of a word

Bismilahi Rahmani Raheem written in Riqah, note the lack of harakat or dots; note that the ( the second letter in the line) has been changes into a line between the and the .

Due to the invention of computers the need of calligraphy has lessened, although, it will commonly be used in marketing. Besides marketing, calligraphy is almost exclusively used in fine art Modern calligraphy styles Aljazeera and will often stylize the Emirates written words much Airlines logos, examples of further than with the contemporary traditional styles. Islamic
calligraphy