Headline Jan 08, 2016/ ''' THE EXQUISITELY BEAUTIFUL WRITING OF ISLAM '''

''' THE EXQUISITELY BEAUTIFUL 

WRITING OF ISLAM '''

ARABIC SCRIPT has been described as ''jewelry fashioned by the hand from the  pure gold of the  intellect and soul.'' 

IN THE GREAT TABRIZ, Iran earthquake of 1780, frantically digging rescuers were said to have found a man sitting on the floor of a candle-lit cellar absorbed in writing Arabic script.

Warned that the town has almost been demolished, that thousand had been killed and that there was hardly any time to escape, he proudly held up a piece of paper bearing a perfect copy of a particularly difficult letter.

'' After many thousands of trials, I have at last achieved this,'' he said. ''Such an absolutely perfect letter is worth more than a city.''

While perhaps apocryphal, this story conveys the single-minded passion that inspired calligraphers trying to unfold the promise of this beautiful Arabic script.

***Its preeminent use  -to write the divine message of  114 surahs, or chapters, of the Holy Quran   -endowed the script and those who wrote it with extraordinary power.

And over the years it emerged as the major artistic vehicle of the Islamic civilization.

Modern scholars have established that Arabic script comes from the Aramaic alphabet used in the early centuries of the Christian era. It has 28 letters, including long  [but not short] vowels.

Written from right to left, the script can be a flowing continuum of ascending vertical strokes, descending curves and temperate horizontals. Words and letters can be compacted to a dense knot or drawn out to great length; they can be regular or curving, small or large.

Belief in the magical efficacy of the letters was widespread in Islam, although learned Muslims often regarded this aspect of their culture with suspicion.

Certain combination of the letters were supposedly effective talisman against particular afflictions. For example, letters of the  ''water''  group could reduce or eliminate fever, while  ''fire''  letters could increase the intensity of a war or conflict.

With power to preserve knowledge and extend thought over time and space, the instruments of writing were  -also glorified. Ink was compared to the water of life that gives immortality- And humans were likened to pens in Allah's hand.

Most calligraphers wrote with qalam or calamus made from reed. Ink was usually black or dark brown. Silver and gold inks could be used, although some orthodox theologians disapproved. Reds, whites, blues and yellows were regularly employed in illuminated headings.

Calligraphers, however, did not function in the world of books and written pages alone.. Many of them were adept at designing inscriptions in stone, brick, ceramic or stucco for buildings.

Almost any physical object could bear the script. Thus coins and dishes and other precious items also provided innumerable surfaces for the written word.

There was a certain of etiquette of script as well. Selection of a style depended not only upon patron's preference and scribe's ability, but also upon the purpose of a particular communication. Thus the almost exclusive choice of an angular,  Kufic style for Qurans in the early centuries of Islam was not at all haphazard.

Slow-moving and dignified, exacting in its application and requiring skill to read, Kufic bore the connotation of eternity and visually defined Islam's holy book, as well as many stone monuments.

Qurans were also written in the stately  maskhi style, a highly, legible and enlongated script. The towering, but harder to read,  thuluth was used for surah headings and impressive epigraphs. Many other styles also flourished.

As I have researched this exquisitely beautiful calligraphic work of Islam, it is just so obvious that these masterpieces in creations have become one of the most distinctive, innovative and spiritual work of Islam. 

*Please share this research post as much, and as far as possible*

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