The Art of Calligraphy

Calligraphy—a term derived from the Greek words kallos (beauty) and graphos (writing), and that connotes the art of arranging text in harmoniously proportional compositions—is one of the most esteemed art forms of the Islamic world. Because the divine revelations comprising the Qur’an were conveyed to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic, a link is sustained between the Arabic language and the religion of Islam in visual terms as well as in linguistic ones. The cultural history of Muslim communities abounds with efforts to codify scripts for particular uses, from religious texts to architecture and decorative arts. In the 20th century, calligraphic arts came to hold a double status as both an academic art, requiring years of specialized training, and a popular art form, with application in everyday graphic communications related to printing and advertising.

Characteristics: Arabic is written and read from right to left. There is no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters, though shapes of letters usually vary depending on whether they are in an initial, medial, or final position in a word. The Arabic alphabet consists of 18 shapes that express 28 phonetic sounds with the help of diacritical marks. Sometimes the same underlying shape can be used to indicate different sounds by the addition of different dots beneath or above it.

Above: Folios from Part 15 of a 30-part Qur’an, likely made in Baghdad, Iraq, 1282-3 CE, ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. Khalili Collections, London. Reproduced in David James, The Master Scribes: Qur’ans of the 10th to 14th Centuries AD (London: Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1992). UC Berkeley Library collection.

The calligraphy in this manuscript is attributed to the Baghdadi master Yaqut al-Mustaʻsimi (d. 1298 CE). Credited with numerous innovations, Yaqut is celebrated for cutting the nib of his reed pen into an oblique angle so as to improve the clarity of his writing and for systematizing the dot system used to maintain consistent proportions. The main text on these folios is muhaqqaq script, a relatively rare choice, while a white Kufic script has been used for the decorated header panels.

Above: Contemporary page of exercises ("mufradat") to practice the sequential movements required to write the letters of the Arabic alphabet beautifully

Numerous modern and contemporary artists from North Africa, the Middle East, and Muslim South Asia reference as formative the experience of learning Arabic calligraphy as children, discussing how they acquired a muscle memory of aesthetic conventions based upon patience and care. As preparation for planning the Letters | الحروف exhibition, student-curators participated in a calligraphy workshop with expert Zubeir Simab so as to gain insight into the physical experience of wielding a specially prepared pen and ink on a page.

Arabic letterforms are used to write many more languages than Arabic alone, including Persian, Urdu, Central Kurdish, Pashto, Dari, and Malay (as well as scores of additional languages). As shown in the below charts comparing scripts, letters of the alphabet may be modified by means of additional dots or markers so as to capture additional sounds present in these languages.

Above: Guide to the Arabic Script, from Venetia Porter, Word Into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (2006).

Below: Comparison of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu Scripts

Above: Abdelkebir Khatibi and Mohammed Sijelmassi, The Splendour of Islamic Calligraphy (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001). UC Berkeley Library collection.

In the 1970s, Moroccan literary scholar Abdelkebir Khatibi partnered with art critic Mohammed Sijelmassi to produce a study of Islamic calligraphy as a total art that links visual manifestations to philosophical bases for language and belief. Their volume assembles illustrations of historical and contemporary specimens of calligraphy so as to highlight essential principles of proportion. On the above page, the authors demonstrate how a calligrapher uses the height and width of the letter alif—the first letter in the Arabic alphabet, associated with acts of creation and invocation—to establish a scale for subsequent writing.

Above, Left: Volumes from the Khatt Books Arabic Design Library, 2014-present. UC Berkeley Library collection, Right: Yasmine Taan, Abdulkader Arnaout: Designing as Visual Poetry, a Pioneer of Graphic Design in Syria (Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Khatt Books, 2017)

Published in the Netherlands by Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, the richly illustrated Arabic Design Library series aims to highlight the work of prominent Arab typographers, graphic designers, and illustrators. The open volume here, dedicated to Syrian designer Abdulkader Arnaout, shows examples of his innovative use of Kufic script in 1970s-era poster designs.