User:Gilbertjoan/sandbox

User:Brooksk32/islamicsandbox

Article Evaluation Arabic Calligraphy

When evaluating this article, I noticed: There is no distinction between the types of calligraphy mentioned in the article. For example, the Basmala is mentioned, but that could mislead the student to think that Basmala is a type of calligraphy instead of what was written.

The pictures do not seem to be arranged in a concise way.

This article is missing many things - they only mention one type of calligraphy.

The first source used is a type of blog.

The article is extremely brief.

The last comments in the talk page were from 2005. Gilbertjoan (talk) 18:27, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Edits to Islamic Calligraphy - Kufic Section

Kufic is the oldest form of the Arabic script. The style emphasizes rigid and angular strokes, which appears as a modified form of the old Nabataean script. The Archaic Kufi consisted of about 17 letters without diacritic dots or accents. Later, dots and accents were added to help readers with pronunciation, and the set of Arabic letters rose to 28. Kufic script was developed around the end of the 7th century in the areas of Kufa, Iraq, as the name Kufic translates to "the script of Kufah." from which it takes its name. The style later developed into several varieties, including floral, foliated, plaited or interlaced, bordered, and squared kufi. It was the main script used to copy Qur'ans from the 8th to 10th century and went out of general use in the 12th century when the flowing naskh style became more practical, although it continued to be used as a decorative element to contrast superseding styles.

Due to the straight and orderly lettering, Kufic was frequently used in carving inscriptions in stone and writing on coins.

There were no set rules of using the Kufic scrip t; the only common feature is the angular, linear shapes of the characters. Due to the lack of methods, the scripts from different regions, countries, and individuals have different ways of writing in the script creatively, ranging from very square and rigid forms to flowery and decorative ones.

Common varieties include square Kufic, a technique known as banna'i. Contemporary calligraphy using this style is also popular in modern decorations.

Decorative Kufic inscriptions are often imitated into pseudo-kufics in Middle age and Renaissance Europe. Pseudo-kufics is especially common in Renaissance depictions of people from the Holy Land. The exact reason for the incorporation of pseudo-Kufic is unclear. It seems that Westerners mistakenly associated 13–14th-century Middle-Eastern scripts as being identical with the scripts current during Jesus's time, and thus found natural to represent early Christians in association with them.

Edits to Naskh

The use of cursive scripts coexisted with Kufic, but because in the early stages of their development they lacked discipline and elegance, cursive was usually used for informal purposes. With the rise of Islam, a new script was needed to fit the pace of conversions, and a well-defined cursive called naskhfirst appeared in the 10th century. Naskh translates to "copying" as it became the standard for transcribing books and manuscripts. The script is the most ubiquitous among other styles, used in Qur'ans, official decrees, and private correspondence. It became the basis of modern Arabic print.

Standardization of the style was pioneered by Ibn Muqla (886 – 940 A.D.) and later expanded by Abu Hayan at-Tawhidi (died 1009 A.D.) and Muhammad Ibn Abd ar-Rahman (1492 – 1545 A.D.). Ibn Muqla is highly regarded in Muslim sources on calligraphy as the inventor of the naskh style, although this seems to be erroneous. '''Since Ibn Muqla wrote with a distinctly rounded hand, many scholars drew the conclusion that he founded this script. Ibn al-Bawwab, the student of Ibn Muqla, is actually believed to have created this script used to translate the Koran.''' However, Ibn Muqla did establish systematic rules and proportions for shaping the letters, which use 'alif as the x-height.

Variation of the naskh includes:


 * 1) Thuluth was developed during the 10th century and later refined by Ahmad Tayyib Shah. Letters in this script have long vertical lines with broad spacing. The name, meaning "third", is in reference to the x-height, which is one-third of the 'alif.
 * 2) Riq'ah is a handwriting style derived from naskh and thuluth, first appeared in the 10th century. Letter forms in riq'ah are simple with short strokes and little flourishes.
 * 3) Muhaqqaq is a majestic style used by accomplished calligraphers. It was considered one of the most beautiful scripts, as well as one of the most difficult to execute. Muhaqqaq was commonly used during the Mamluk era, but its use became largely restricted to short phrases, such as the basmallah, from the 18th century onward.

Reference List