The Calligraphy of Islam
Introduction The Arabic script belongs to the group of Semitic alphabetical scripts in which the consonants are represented in writing while the marking of vowels is optional or used as diacritics. The north Arabic script, which became the Arabic script of the Holy Qur�an, relates from the Nabatean script which was derived from the Aramaic script. The language has been traced to the period of 1300 BC. Aramaics and Nabateans were the original Arabs. Old Aramaic was the language of the prophet Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) and the Apostles. The Nabatean script remained unchanged through 600 years, from the 3rd century AD to the 9th century AD. The �Arabic script� shares the same features than the Aramaic script. They both have the same name for the alphabetical letters; they have a similar graphic representation for phonetically similar letters; they have the same representation of the letter depending of its position in the word. It is important to know all this because it traces a relationship between the Holy scriptures of the great religions of the world.
The Arabic alphabet is particularly suitable for drawing because of the number of rounded letters, its high lines that can be elongated infinitely and the similarity of shapes between some letters. Effectively, the Arabic alphabet contains 18 different letters shapes. By adding one, two or three dots to letters with similar phonetical characteristics, a total of 28 letters is obtained. This is of a great importance for calligraphy because a lot of graphic possibilities can be opened up in the formation of the script itself, and also the possibility of confusion between letters can offer a certain harmony.
With the spread of Islam, in the 7th century AD, the Arabic alphabet was adapted by several non- Arab nations for writing their own languages: in Iran, Turkey until 1929, by certain tribes like the Kazaks, the Uzbeks, the Tajiks, etc. Also, several other languages have used the Arabic alphabet at one time or another like the Urdu, Malay, Swahili, Hausa, Algerian Tribal, etc. The worldly use of the script is significant of the spread of the Muslim religion. It is also significant of the flexibility of the Arabic alphabet itself, in the phonetic sense as well as in the physical sense. The Arabic alphabet is significantly still used in the Arts even if it disappeared from a lot of countries. It is mainly used for religious purposes and for the decoration in areas as remote as in China which counts a community of 100 million of Muslims or Japan with 30 000 converts.

Therefore, from its simple basic form of writing, Islam developed the Arabic script into a beautiful form of art: the calligraphy. How this actually happened and why?
Firstly, the spread of Islamic calligraphy must be explained by its origins because it intended to replace all kind of figurative arts. Secondly, the importance of the Pen in Islam is crucial and it makes the link between the Arts and the research for all kind of enlightenment. the Holy Prophet said: �Good writing makes the truth stand out.�
Thirdly, The passage from the Kufic style to the Cursive style in Islamic calligraphy reveals a certain deterioration of the script Art for other purposes.
I intend to explain, through this paper, the mythical impact of the writing in Islam.
The Arabic poetry came from the Bedouins of Saudi Arabia. People sent their children in the nomads camps to learn the art of beautiful pronunciation and the art of making melodic sentences. In the pre-Islamic era the Arabs held great debates and seminars on poetry. There was an annual festival during which the poets would write their verses on skins and on wooden slates in the most attractive manner. The best artist then would hang his work on the walls of the Kaaba, in Mecca.
One day, a Companion of the Prophet, at the beginning of the Revelation, wrote the shortest chapter of the Holy Qur�an (Sura-E-Kausar) on the wall of the Kaaba. All the seven best poets who had exposed their poems immediately acknowledged the superiority of the composition as something that could not emanate from a human brain. Then, they removed their poems. This was the first calligraphy of Islam. Today, Islamic calligraphies are still hung on the walls of the Kaaba; the tradition persisted from the 7th century AD. Why? Because writing the words of God is not a simple work of penmanship, it is worthy of a personal and spiritual achievement in the Muslims lives.
Several years later, in Madina, the Holy Prophet released the prisoners of war if they undertook to teach ten Museums the art of beautiful writing. These prisoners therefore taught the early Muslims the calligraphy in the Hiraic and Hamyariac scripts. And Madina became the first home of Muslim calligraphy.

Writing was not common among the Arabs because the nomads distrusted written papers. Islam changed radically their manner of thinking, and the beautifying of the writing did not therefore become a skill or an art; it was a pure act of devotion and worship to God. Hundred of inscriptions still exist bearing the first profession of faith of the Muslim: �There is only one God.� The verses of the Holy Qur�an were patiently and diligently recorded on all kinds of materials since the paper did not exist yet. The Islamic calligraphy from this epoch acquired new dimensions of beauty with its decorative and colorful motifs. Its preeminent use was in writing the scriptures. Inscriptions were incorporated to almost every Islamic work endowed it with extraordinary strength and transcendent significance. The ordinary objects were suddenly redefined; they acquired a new utility; they remembered the divine presence in our daily life and our more basic daily actions. Consequently, the influence of calligraphy extended to leather, leaves, branches of dates trees, scrolls and then to architecture, minarets and arches of great mosques. It also acquired fresh styles, a great variability in form, new decorative designs through the centuries. Words and letters could be dense or drawn to great length; they could be angular or curving; they could be small or large. And different styles might appear altogether and achieve a high level of sophistication.

II. The importance of the Pen and Knowledge in Islam:

Calligraphy has always been viewed by the Muslims as an act of piety that elevates the spirit in knowledge and in purity. Islam was the first religion in which a distinction was made between the �people of the book� (those who possess revealed books like Jews and Christians) and the people of other religions in the world. Hence the importance of keeping the �revealed� words intact has been fundamental. The Holy Qur�an has not changed a word since the 7th century and everything discovered about it, after meticulous inquiries, has been preserved through generations. All was preserved by the Pen and by the work of calligraphers who were the only scribes available. The veneration shown for the Pen is proved by the fact that the Pen and the necessity to gain in knowledge are constantly mentioned in the Muslim scriptures, actually more than 700 times. Chapter 29 of the Holy Qur�an was been named �Al-Qalam� which means �The Pen.� One of the sacred verses says:
�Thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who teacheth by the pen,
Teacheth man that which he knew not.�
(Chapter 96:Al-Alaq, line 3-5)
The Muslims scriptures talk about the tablets given by God to the Prophet Moses in order to guide his people:
�And We wrote for him, upon the tablets,
the lesson to be drawn from all things.�
(Surah Aaraf)
The art of writing beautifully then started with the divine commandments, with the finger of God. To use the Pen was therefore, from the beginning, an act of piety, a spiritual as well as a scholarly achievement. A saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) says:
�Purity of writing is purity of the soul.�
�The research for knowledge is compulsory
upon Muslim men and women.�
Even the young children learn how to read and write using one of the calligraphic forms. They reproduce, orally and in writing, the Qur�anic verses until they know them by heart.

For these reasons, the scribe in Islamic has been highly respected. His or her achievement was considered as the representation of his or her individual sophistication. The development of a calligraphic style was as unique as the calligrapher�s personality. The calligraphers felt a great responsibility, and they respected their works excessively. Calligraphers performed ablutions before even touching the pen. They cherished their pen because it was often handed down to the other generation or to posterity; sometimes they would be buried with the pen at their side. Inkstands and pen boxes were often decorated with verses. They would never discard any written word by respect for the scriptures; they would prefer to make collages. For that reason, no table, no rug, no objects that could be placed on the ground bear calligraphies for fear of stepping on the Holy words or seating on them. Calligraphers also had to learn through an established line of masters which went back to the time of the Holy prophet. The calligraphy art was hard to learn. Signing one�s own work was like acquiring a degree that would integrate inner experiences with the knowledge of the world. Hence, the person who handed the �Qalam,� the Pen, represented a symbol of beauty and power, an integration of artistry, spirituality, purity and scholarship.
 		The first Islamic calligraphies
From the Kufic style to the Cursive style Although early Arabic sources mention several calligraphic styles in reference to the cities in which they were used, they generally fit into two broad categories: the �dry style� named from the Kufic style, an angular script; and the �moist style� named from the cursive script, a fluid style. Both forms coexisted as early as the 7th century, but, because of his lack of discipline and elegance, the cursive script was used for secular purposes only, like poetry and official papers. The early cursive script was furthermore complicated, filled with ligatures and sometimes also abbreviated. This ensured the secret of personal documents. Also, this script was subject to totally different rules than the Qur�anic script written in the Kufic script. The definitive passage from angular to cursive occurred in the 10th century, with a man named Ibn Muqla. The transformation had a deep and long-lasting impact because it marked the most important improvement in the art of calligraphy.

The scribes, from the beginning of the Muslim Revelation, have used the Kufic style. This style was fit to epigraphy on stone, ceramic or metal objects because of its angularity pronounced squareness. As the paper, at this epoch, was not yet known, the Companions of the Prophet had to record the divine words on all kinds of materials. The long verticals in the Arabic script could be elongated to end in various flourished, palmettos and flowerlike designs known as the foliated Kufic. The early Qur�anic scripts had their letters sharply drawn and unambiguous characterized by a script being wider than it was high. The typical early script was not written in words and phrases but in groups of connected letters separated by spaces. There was a considerable flexibility in drawing the connecting lines and the letter bodies that lent themselves to horizontal extension. This permitted broad variations and even on a single page, sometimes within a single line. Also, flexibility was greater in the expansion than in the contraction.

The premise of the transformation occurred in the 10th century AD with the geometry applied to cursive scripts. At this epoch, the Muslims were most advanced in science and technology and most sophisticated in the arts. So every refinement possible was passionately investigated. The calligraphers were then prepared to undergo multiple changes and variations. About 50 cursive styles already existed, but many of them lacked the elegance of Kufic. Thus, it was urgent to discipline these styles to avoid their degeneration and proliferation into an endless multiplicity of styles.
Ibn Muqla did not create new scripts neither did he invent the cursive script. He merely invented a system of proportional writing based on the principles of geometry. He invented a system still used in teaching calligraphy. The measuring of the proportions of letters was made by differing numbers of Rhomboid dots and triangles. He established firm rules about the exact relationships between the letters of the Arabic alphabet. The height of the alif (5, 7 or 9 dots) established the style of writing; it served as yardstick. Alif is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet: a straight, vertical stroke. The height of the alif was determined by a dot made by the calligrapher�s pen. Five dots would be used for the Naskh script, and nine for the Thuluth script, for instance.
The alif was also used as the diameter of an imaginary circle within which all the Arabic letters could be written.
The second stage of the calligraphy reform came from Ibn-al-Bawwab. He gave birth to the first Qur�an written in cursive style in 1000. He had used the most important cursive scripts used until now in complementation in the Holy scriptures: the Naskh and the Thuluth scripts. The thuluth style was used for headings or for the transcription of the most important chapters, while the body of the Qur�anic text was written in Naskh.
Elegant cursive writing reached its perfection under Yaqut, in the 13th century AD. Yaqut developed the rules for the scripts popular under the name of �the six pens� or �six calligrapher�s styles,� i.e., the Thuluth, Deewani, Nasta�liq, Naskhi, Rihani and Reqaa styles
The Naskhi script gained a great popularity in the 10th century after it had been redesigned by Ibn muqlah. It has short horizontal stems and almost equal vertical depths above and below the medial line. The curves are full and deep, the uprights straight and vertical, and the words are well spaced.
The Thuluth script is bigger. It has the same proportions for straight lines and curves, and the ending of letters are bent back and slightly upwards.
The Req�aa script is used for handwriting. It is rounded and densely structured with short horizontal stems.
The Nasta�liq script is used to copy love lyrics and romantic or mystical epics ; it is called �the bride among the calligraphic styles� and bears an harmony between painting and writing. It is designed to imitate the birds� curved shape.
The Deewani script was also developed from the Persian Ta�liq script that gave birth to the more elegant Nasta�liq. Deewani was used for chancelleries. The script was excessively cursive and highly structured. But, it had undotted letters and did not use vowels marks. Its letters were also unconventionally joined together.
Finally, the Rihani script is a �dry� style with sharp edges and a marked contrast between the very high alif and the flat, pointed lower ending. It is often found in the ceramics.

Conclusion:

Unlike most faiths, Islam did not use figural images to convey its religious convictions. From the start, Islam saw in the representation of humans or animals, an implication of idolatry. Islam means �submission to one God�, so the art should reflect the constant necessity for the Muslims to recall, pass on, learn by heart, understand and teach the words of god. It is not surprising, therefore, that calligraphy has been patronized and encouraged at the highest level throughout its history, and manifesting itself in all branches of Islamic Art. It indeed became an important factor that relates Muslims to each other.
The Holy Qur�an, which is the word of God touches every aspect of the Muslim life, so it has always been an object of devotion and the focus for the artistic genius of Islam. This is not only to elevate calligraphy to the level of a sacramental art, but also to make the many hundreds of exquisite Qur�an copies the best documentary evidence. The need for the Arabs Muslims to record precisely the divine Revelation compelled them to refine and perfect the art of writing and the production and embellishment of manuscripts. In a short time, they gained a very high degree of proficiency in all the relevant arts and skills involved in the production of manuscripts. These skills include calligraphy, illumination, gilding. binding, draughtsmanship and illustration. They therefore established an Islamic tradition of great excellence which endured with the time and spread worldly. At the same time, the styles of calligraphy evolved a lot even if we can recognize only two broad styles which succeeded one another in the time: the �dry� kufic style, and the �humid� Cursive style.
Today, the special honor paid to calligraphers by all Muslims throughout their history continues, and is reflected in the esteem and rewards conferred on the few outstanding contemporary calligraphers.


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