Dr Bilal Badat states that “[a]s a designative term ‘Ottoman calligraphy’ refers to a specific set of aesthetic, artistic, and ritualistic traditions practised and followed during the chronological and geographical scope defined by the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923).” ‘Traditions’ refers to ‘writing’ traditions.
So given that Islamic calligraphy is a genus of Ottoman calligraphy, we may define Islamic calligraphy similarly but broaden its chronological and geographical scope to that of the Islamic civilisations since the early 7th century, around the advent of Islam. The spread of Islam undoubtedly ushered in a great age of calligraphy throughout the ancient Middle East due to how it unified the region under the Arabic language and due to its veneration of the written word.
The foundation of Islamic calligraphy was laid down by the creative genius of three great calligraphers from Baghdad; the Vizier Ibn Muqla (886–940) of the Abbasid court, Ibn al-Bawwab, and Yakut al-Musta’simi of Amasya (d. 1298). Read more about their methods under ‘techniques’ below.
Originally, Arabic calligraphy was a tool for communications and preserving the word of God through the Quran. However, over time, it also became an important element in architecture, decoration, and coin design. In addition, Arabic calligraphy also evolved over time into two distinct families: Kufic and rounded scripts.
Kufic: Very early Arabic script was rarely used, because of the culture’s strong oral tradition. However, when the Quran needed to be preserved during the spread of Islam, the Arabic language became much more important. As a result, the script was made purposefully beautiful. This version of the script is called Kufic. Today, there are several styles of Kufic, but overall, it is characterized by angular, rectilinear letterforms and a horizontal orientation.
Rounded Scripts: While Kufic became standard for sacred texts, there developed a need for a script that was quicker to write and better suited for documents of a smaller scale, like letters. These types of script, now called round scripts, are considered formal. Ideally, rounded script should not look like a human hand has written it, so there’s little to no room for creative expression when writing in this style.
The history of Muslim communities in the UK is relatively short and hence appreciation of Islamic calligraphy has remained low. Soraya Syed was the first Briton to receive her calligraphy license (icazetname) although Dr Martin Lings and others wrote about it in the 1970s.
Visier Ibn Muqla:
Ibn Muqla established the principles of Islamic calligraphy and to this day, Islamic calligraphers use his theory of proportion based on three sets of measurements: the dot, alif, and circle. The relationship of all letters of a script is determined by the width of the rhomboid dot produced by the pen nib. The letter alif can then be drawn based on a set number rhomboid dots determined by the type of script being used. Once the letter alif is formed, an invisible circle is drawn around the letter (the height of the alif is the diameter of the circle), serving the basis from which all letters of a script may be calculated.
Ibn al-Bawwab:
Following Ibn Muqla was Ibn al-Bawwab, who refined several of Ibn Muqla’s scripts, and is purported to have invented the cursive scripts of Rayhani and Muhaqqaq. Ibn al-Bawwab is also known to have preserved many of Ibn Muqla’s original manuscripts, though, sadly, none of them have survived to the present.
Yaqut al Musta’simi:
From the 700s, the Quran had been copied only in the kufic, a formal, rectilinear script associated with the city of Kufa in southern Iraq. By the 900s, however, a series of flowing curvilinear scripts evolved that came to surpass kufic in religious, government, and private use. Through the transmission of knowledge from teacher to pupil, the achievements of Ibn Muqla were refined by the calligrapher and illuminator Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 1022) and Yakut al-Musta’simi (d. 1298), the secretary to the last Abbasid caliph. These calligraphers contributed to the development of the akalm-i sitte, also known as the six major scripts: sulus, nesish, muhakkak, reyhani, tevki, and rika.
Yaqut al Musta’simi was a scribe in the royal court who further systematised the method of proportional measurements and began the practice of cutting the pen nib at a slant, a seemingly minor change that forever changed the aesthetic and methodology of Arabic calligraphy. Yakut lived through the Mongol sack of Baghdad and is said to have taken refuge in a minaret, where he continued labouring at his work as the city below was ravaged. Legend has it that Yakut instructed six disciples, each of whom mastered a script. Another great invention by Yakut is the cutting of the reed nib at an oblique angle, thereby accentuating the elegance and thinness of the vertical line.
6 major scripts:
These three calligraphers are history’s best known, but countless disciples studied under them, including, notably, several women who achieved renown for their skill. The work of all of these artists during the Golden Age yielded the six major scripts(“aklami sitte”): sulus, nesish, muhakkak, reyhani, tevki, and rika.
The names of some of the scripts refer to their size. For example, sulus, also known as the “mother of calligraphy” is called the “one-third script.” Its rounded lettering lends itself to compositional techniques, including playful interlacing and interlocking of letters. Nesih is a small elegant script often used for secular writing. A derivation of this script is gubari (dustscript), a microscript so small that it was used to write carrier pigeon messages. Muhakkak, meaning “tightly woven” is perhaps the most angular of the six scripts and is used in copying the Koran. A smaller version of muhakkak is reyhani. Tevki is a chancellery script, used to record government documents. Rika is a smaller version of tevki. These six scripts dominated the arts of Islamic calligraphy up until the 1400s when Islamic calligraphy would transform itself yet again under the empire of the Ottomans.
A multiplicity of styles have developed throughout the Islamic world since Yaqut Al-Musta’simi but six in particular have remained popular today so much so that they are well known today collectively as Al-Aqlam As-Sittah (‘The 6 Scripts’). These are Kufic, Thuluth, Naskh, Taliq, Diwani, and Riqa. That said, many other styles still exist across the Islamic world such as the Maghribi script of North Africa which has gained global prominence in recent times, whilst others have seen a re-emergence after not having been practiced for centuries like Muhaqqaq.
Individual craftspeople:
Note: not all listed are considered ‘professional makers’ but all are at least ‘trainees’.
Businesses with two or more employees:
In order to gain the highest quality training, students have to gain skills outside of the UK.
In the 1960s the number of individual calligraphy masters of Istanbul were very few in number (perhaps in the 10s) however today, as an example, around 100 classes of students have graduated at the hands of Hassan Celebi who has been delivering weekly classes at various venues for decades.
Mohammed Zakariya (USA) was the first Westerner to receive his diploma (icazetname) as a professional calligrapher from Hassan Celebi in 1988. Since then three or four professional calligraphers have graduated at his hands in America, and many more international calligraphers were encouraged or inspired by him, and the tradition of the art has become much more well-known in the West as a result.
Although occasionally some Turkish masters in the past were self-taught to some degree, that level of mastery is unachievable in the UK without the guidance of a master.
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