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The rich history of Arabic calligraphy

The rich history of Arabic calligraphy

Learn about the rich history of calligraphy in the Islamic world.
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Transcript

Calligraphy is for more than wedding invitations.

Calligraphy is considered a major art form akin to painting or sculpting in the Middle East and East Asia.

In the Islamic world, calligraphy is used to inscribe verses of the Qur’an onto religious buildings.

Arabic calligraphy is often done using a reed pen (also known as a qalam), of which the working end is cut at an angle.

The reed pen’s shape allows for the fluid gradations between thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes that are typical of Arabic scripts.

One of the most popular Arabic scripts is naskhi, a cursive script that was created in the 10th century and came to be used for copying the Qur’an.

There are also many regional Arabic scripts, such as the maghribi (“western”) script from North Africa and Spain, which is characterized by long horizontal elements and open curves below the register.