Arabic Calligraphy Styles
The calligraphic styles Arabs have developed in the early days of Islam , with the release of books of all types in the geographical area of dar al-Islam.
The calligraphy is also very developed in the arts of Islam , and sometimes even taking a symbolic value. In literature and poetry, even in the letter a reflection of the natural world goes back to the time of Abbasids.
We generally divided into two groups Arabic calligraphy easily distinguishable:
- Kufic writings (or Kufic), which are characterized by their angularity
- the cursive scripts (naskhi), much more rounded.
However, this distinction on a historic plan is highly questionable: the two systems coexist, each with many variants.
Summary |
Different styles
Writing the oldest and simplest is the Hijazi. This is a simple calligraphy, cursive, where the diacritics, that is to say the notation short vowels are rarely indicated and then take the form of dashes. It was during the late seventh and eighth century mainly, and finds himself in the early Korans and stone inscriptions.
The Kufic
A second script, Kufic, develops in the ninth century. More sophisticated, more carefully calibrated and it is distinguished by a very marked horizontal line, a rhythm and ventilation of the text visible. The vowels are sometimes marked, in the form of red dots, and consonants , previously poorly differentiated, are sometimes decorated with dashes to make the text more readable. We know that writing in particular through the discovery of a body of the Koran Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia , but it also appears on coins.
From the tenth century , the writing becomes more diverse. We generally attributed to eastern Iran Kufic writing sometimes, but sometimes more sweet, with very tall poles, as seen on flat ceramic Samanid. The thickness of the letters varies greatly.
In the Maghreb, the size of most advanced calamus provides a uniform feature. The letters below the line forming a curve. Using a different color ink for the vowels is also typical of the region.
A variant of this style of writing is Andalusian, smaller dimensions and tighter.
If these two entries are Kufic, this style begins to be a little off, because of its impracticality. The Kufic script is still used for headings or Korans some monumental inscriptions, but the naskhi tends to take over for longer texts. The Kufic script is ready yet very well in the ornamentation, which is why several ornamental styles are further developed.
Egypt Fatimid , a feature of writing is to bring up an element of S inverted normally lies below the line. We call this style "foliated Kufic.
In al-Andalus , including the work of the Great Mosque of Cordoba , the letters end with a half-palmette, a trend found in Iran and Egypt, Fatimid and takes the name of "Kufic flowered" when writing takes on a highly decorative. it sometimes becomes almost unreadable, like the Cenotaph Siraf (1133).
A third type of Kufic is the "Kufic braided, or plaited, with interlacing stalks emerge can be complex.
The "geometric Kufic," meanwhile, is generally part of a square on edge, which takes the name of banna'i in Persian. It is frequently used as architectural decoration. In general, these are the names of great personalities of Islam (Ali, Muhammad) and that of God (Allah) which are repeated. Often, its characters and its extreme nested geometric, the geometric Kufic is almost illegible, but the interest is not semantics, it fits in the decorative. False epigraphy, known as "pseudo-epigraphy" are sometimes used for purely aesthetic, obviously.
The handwriting
More nimble, more flexible, writing naskhi , which appears around the tenth century does not contain angular character, which does not stop to take many different forms. The proportion of the letters came from the Alif , a letter consisting of a single bar. In the texts, six styles of writing are generally distinguished, but as examples is shown. The challenge is to differentiate these styles and give them the right name.
- The Naskh or naskhi is simple handwriting, used in correspondence before the calligraphers seize it and use it in the Koran. it is both thin and flexible, without emphasis, and is characterized by great clarity.
- The writing is thuluth most monumental, energetic, with poles stretched. It is primarily used by the Mamluks, the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries.
- The Tawq 'appears already in the reign of the Abbasid caliphs, who use it to sign official documents. With its elongated stems and wide curves in the main line, it remained a little used chancery writing.
- The rika is a miniature version of Tawq ', also used very little.
- The writing is muhaqqaq full, alert. The endings of the letters are elongated and flattened their curves highlight the text.
- The Kayhan is a miniture version of muhaqqaq.
But the six canonical calligraphy are not the only ones used. Some, like Ghubar are reserved for specific uses. This tiny calligaphie, whose name comes from the Arabic word "dust" was used to copy miniature Korans. Other features are a region, as nastaliq. this writing, whose name means "during", "hooked" is from 1370 and is only used in the Iranian world. It is the contraction of Naskh and taliq ', a writing chacellerie which we know only very few examples dating from the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries, and is characterized by its delicacy, its character and some suspension full of strong contrasts and untied. Little used for the Korans, but rather serves to translate poetry and administrative acts.
The calligraphy on human heads exist in Iran in the twelfth - thirteenth centuries, and are gradually moving towards animated calligraphy, where the entire letter is a form of human or animal.
The Ottomans were great artists in calligraphy. They recovered well taliq ', this little Iranian chancery handwriting used to be used in epitaphs and in poetry. They also devised the couch, a style reserved for the Chancellor (its name comes from the sofa, that is the council of ministers). Very tight, it multiplies the diacritics and small ornaments and is characterized by an impulse to the left, which makes it complicated to decipher. Finally, we can cite tughra these signatures Ottoman sultans who prsenent form Monogram top official documents. Emerged in the mid- fifteenth century , these tughra perfect as and when the reigns to achieve a greater complexity. It is characterized by three poles, perhaps symbolizing the three standards in yak tail of the first Ottoman Turks or three fingers and thumb of the Sultan, and contain both the name of the sovereign, and his father manage a formula.
In the Sultanate India, only Koranic calligraphy is also created in the fourteenth - fifteenth centuries: the Bihari.
Calligrammes
The calligraphy , the most Muslim of Islamic art, can also be figurative sides. By performing interlaced with written words or by using the micrograph , calligraphers and manage to produce figurative images. The texts used are sometimes short: it may be just under Allah, Muhammad or Ali. Longer, Basmala is sometimes used. The extreme case is found in the micrograph, whereby the entire suras written in a tiny form a word or an image. The micrograph is present mainly on rollers talismanic ) a horse ( Duldul , his mount , a sword (his Dhu al-Fiqar ). Others are charged with different meanings, like this man in prayer , or animals such as fish ), or architectures (eg mosque ).
In the teaching of calligraphy, to help visualize the shapes of letters, teachers often resort to comparison with images. For example, the initial ha resembles nasta'liq two eyes, which reflects its Persian name the 'he' two eyes "(he 'do tcheshm).
Gallery
Western calligraphy cursive (sort of thuluth the fat stalks) on stucco, Madrasa Bou Fes Inania
Western cursive calligraphy on ceramic
In Samarkand (Shah Zindeh e) above, Kufic calligraphy naskhi yellow and white, and below, the Kufic poles tied with yellow and thuluth in the frame above
References
- a and b Torah, Bible, Koran on BNF
- A lion
- (ja) Calligraphy
- Man in Prayer
- Bird
Notes
Related articles
- Bismillah
- Rub El Hizb /
- Calligraphy styles
- Islamic civilization in Al-Andalus
- Kufic script (angular) ~ Arabic alphabet (writing the hamza)
- Hassan Massoudy
- Ghani Alani
External Links
- (In) The Language and The Script on Sakkal Design
- (In) Arabic Calligraphy on ArabicCalligraphy
- (In) Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy of The Library of Congress
- (En) (ar) Arabic Calligraphy / Galleries on Calligraphy-arabesque.com
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