Verses of the Qur’an are carved in calligraphy by an Iraqi on a piece of leather in Baghdad. This ancient profession has been handed from one generation to another for centuries. Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images
Understanding the importance of the Arabic language in Islamic culture is central to understanding both in its literature and its visual arts. In the 7th and 8th centuries CE the Arab armies conquered for Islam territories stretching from the shores of the Atlantic to Sindh (now in Pakistan). Besides a religion, they brought to the conquered peoples a language both written and spoken. The Arabic language was a principal factor in uniting peoples who differed widely in ethnicity, language, and culture. In the early centuries of Islam, Arabic not only was the official language of administration but also was and has remained the language of religion and learning. The Arabic alphabet has been adapted to Muslim peoples’ vernaculars just as the Latin alphabet has been adapted in the Christian-influenced West.
Classified as a Southern-Central Semitic language, Arabic is spoken across a large area including North Africa, most of the Arabian Peninsula, and other parts of the Middle East.
Perhaps most significantly, Arabic is the language of the Qur’an and the religious language of all Muslims. Literary Arabic, usually called Classical Arabic, is essentially the form of the language found in the Qur’an, with some modifications necessary for its use in modern times; it is uniform throughout the Arab world. Colloquial Arabic includes numerous spoken dialects, some of which are mutually unintelligible. The chief dialect groups are those of Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. With the exception of the dialect of Algeria, all Arabic dialects have been strongly influenced by the literary language.
An Arabic word is composed of two parts: (1) the root, which generally consists of three consonants and provides the basic lexical meaning of the word, and (2) the pattern, which consists of vowels and gives grammatical meaning to the word. Thus, the root /k-t-b/ combined with the pattern /-i-a-/ forms kitab “book,” whereas the same root combined with the pattern /-a-i-/ forms katib, “one who writes” or “clerk.” The language also makes use of prefixes and suffixes, which act as subject markers, pronouns, prepositions, and the definite article.
The Arabic script was evolved probably by the 6th century CE from Nabataean, a dialect of Aramaic current in northern Arabia. The earliest surviving examples of Arabic before Islam are inscriptions on stone.
Arabic is written from right to left and consists of 17 characters, which, with the addition of dots placed above or below some of them, provide the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Short vowels are not included in the alphabet, being indicated by signs placed above or below the consonant or long vowel that they follow. Certain characters may be joined to their neighbours, others to the preceding one only, and others to the succeeding one only. When coupled to another, the form of the character undergoes certain changes.
These features, as well as the fact that there are no capital forms of letters, give the Arabic script its particular character. A line of Arabic suggests an urgent progress of the characters from right to left. The nice balance between the vertical shafts above and the open curves below the middle register induces a sense of harmony. The peculiarity that certain letters cannot be joined to their neighbours provides articulation. For writing, the Arabic calligrapher employs a reed pen (qalam) with the working point cut on an angle. This feature produces a thick downstroke and a thin upstroke with an infinite gradation in between. The line traced by a skilled calligrapher is a true marvel of fluidity and sensitive inflection, communicating the very action of the master’s hand.
Broadly speaking, there were two distinct scripts in the early centuries of Islam: cursive script and Kufic script. For everyday purposes a cursive script was employed: typical examples may be seen in the Arabic papyri from Egypt. Rapidly executed, the script does not appear to have been subject to formal and rigorous rules, and not all the surviving examples are the work of professional scribes. Kufic script, however, seems to have been developed for religious and official purposes. The name means “the script of Kufah,” an Islamic city founded in Mesopotamia in 638 CE, but the actual connection between the city and the script is not clear. Kufic is a more or less square and angular script. Professional copyists employed a particular form for reproducing the earliest copies of the Qur’an that have survived. These are written on parchment and date from the 8th to the 10th century. They are mostly of an oblong as opposed to codex (i.e., manuscript book) format. The writing is frequently large, especially in the early examples, so that there may be as few as three lines to a single page. The script can hardly be described as stiff and angular; rather, the implied pace is majestic and measured.
Kufic went out of general use about the 11th century, although it continued to be used as a decorative element contrasting with those scripts that superseded it. About 1000 CE a new script was established and came to be used for copying the Qur’an. This is the so-called naskhi script, which has remained perhaps the most popular script in the Arab world. It is a cursive script based on certain laws governing the proportions between the letters. The two names associated with its development are Ibn Muqlah and Ibn al-Bawwab, both of whom lived and worked in Mesopotamia.
Distinctive scripts were developed in particular regions. In Spain the maghribi (“western”) script was evolved and became the standard script for Qur’ans in North Africa. Derived ultimately from Kufic, it is characterized by the exaggerated extension of horizontal elements and of the final open curves below the middle register.
Both Persia and Turkey made important contributions to calligraphy. In these countries the Arabic script was adopted for the vernacular. The Persian scribes invented the ta‘liq script in the 13th century. The term ta‘liq means “suspension” and aptly describes the tendency of each word to drop down from its preceding one. At the close of the same century, a famous calligrapher, Mir ‘Ali of Tabriz, evolved nasta‘liq, which, according to its name, is a combination of naskhi and ta‘liq. Like ta‘liq, this is a fluid and elegant script, and both were popularly used for copying Persian literary works.
Verses of the Qur’an are carved in calligraphy by an Iraqi on a piece of leather in Baghdad. This ancient profession has been handed from one generation to another for centuries. Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images
A characteristic script developed in Ottoman Turkey was that used in the chancellery and known as divani. This script is highly mannered and rather difficult to read. Peculiar to Turkish calligraphy is the tugra (tughra), a kind of royal cipher based on the names and titles of the reigning sultan and worked into a very intricate and beautiful design. A distinctive tugra was created for each sultan and affixed to imperial decrees by a skilled calligrapher, the neshani.
There has always existed in the Islamic world a keen appreciation of fine handwriting, and, from the 16th century, it became a practice to assemble in albums specimens of penmanship. Many of these assembled in Turkey, Persia, and India are preserved in museums and libraries. Calligraphy, too, has given rise to quite a considerable literature, such as manuals for professional scribes employed in chancelleries.
In its broadest sense, calligraphy also includes the Arabic scripts employed in materials other than parchment, papyrus, and paper. In religious buildings, verses from the Qur’an were inscribed on the walls for the edification of the faithful, whether carved in stone or stucco or executed in faience tiles. Religious invocations, dedications, and benedictory phrases were also introduced into the decoration of portable objects. Generally speaking, there is a close relationship between these and the scripts properly used on the conventional writing materials. It was often the practice for a skilled penman to design monumental inscriptions.