This paper examines Islamic calligraphy as a central art form of the Muslim world, tracing its origins, mathematical foundations, and spiritual significance. Beginning with a broad overview of Islamic art and the religious restrictions that elevated calligraphy above other artistic modes, the paper then surveys the development of Arabic scripts from the seventh century onward, including the standardization reforms attributed to the tenth-century calligrapher Ibn Muqlah. The paper concludes by addressing a largely neglected dimension of Islamic calligraphic history: the participation of women as practitioners in the early Islamic era. Drawing on scattered historical references and recent scholarly attention, it argues that female calligraphers were more prevalent than modern scholarship has generally acknowledged.
The major art forms of Islam include architecture, literature, arabesque, and calligraphy. These art forms became prominent throughout the Islamic world due in large part to religious restrictions on the depiction of idols, which precluded artistic expression in sculpture and painting. Consequently, the efforts of Islamic artists were focused on refining the art forms available to them. As a result, calligraphy assumed a prominent place in the Islamic world, with skilled practitioners held in high esteem and some even becoming important governmental officials on the basis of their calligraphic talents.
Although there is a growing body of knowledge concerning the origins and development of Islamic calligraphy in general, less is known about the role of women calligraphers in the early Islamic world — a gap this paper seeks to fill. To this end, the paper reviews the relevant literature regarding art in the early Islamic era in general and, more specifically, the role of women in adopting calligraphy as a means of expressing artistic talent and earning a livelihood. A summary of the research and important findings is presented in the conclusion.
Islamic art has traditionally been defined as "the art made by artists or artisans whose religion was Islam, for patrons who lived in predominantly Muslim lands, or for purposes that are restricted or peculiar to a Muslim population or a Muslim setting" (Blair and Bloom 152). As a result, the term "Islamic art" encompasses the vast majority of art produced over the course of 1,400 years in the Islamic world, typically defined as the "arid belt covering much of West Asia but stretching from the Atlantic coast of North Africa and Spain on the west to the steppes of Central Asia and the Indian Ocean on the east" (Blair and Bloom 152). These geographic regions were the locations where Islam spread during the seventh and eighth centuries CE (Blair and Bloom 153). Early Islamic art included everyday items such as small jugs, carpets, architecture, and literature, as well as metalwork, ceramics, glass, textiles, wood, ivory, rock crystal, and even gardens (Blair and Bloom 154).
Because of religious proscriptions forbidding the depiction of idols, Islamic art has traditionally been dedicated to decorative applications. As Ettinghausen observed, "It is generally acknowledged that Islamic art is an art of decoration" (137). Moreover, Islamic art in the early era of the religion was intended to connect the artist with the divine. Nasr explains: "The art of Islam, without doubt, is essentially a contemplative art. This means that it expresses above all a state of the soul that is open toward the interior, toward an encounter with the Divine Presence. We can say equally that it is directly concerned with a sacred art or the absence, in its most typical works, of any individual impulse; the artist is effaced in the work or in the tradition which guarantees its legitimacy" (1997:506). These observations apply to all Islamic art forms, but they are especially salient with respect to Islamic calligraphy.
Calligraphy is among the most important and beautiful of all the arts in Islam. Ernst enthuses that "Arabic calligraphy has exerted its enchantment over many generations of writers and readers alike" (431). Eaton likewise suggests that, together with architecture, calligraphy represents the pinnacle of Islamic art: "The two supreme arts of Islam are calligraphy (combined with illumination) and architecture, the one having to do with the revealed Word, the other with the human environment" (1985:204). Notwithstanding its importance, there has been a dearth of scholarly investigation into its aesthetic and spiritual foundations. Ernst notes that, "Despite the existence of numerous treatises in Arabic and Persian on the techniques of penmanship, hearkening back to the methods developed by the great calligraphers of the Abbasid era such as Ibn Muqla (d. 940) and Yaqut (d. ca. 1297), few authors have attempted to explain the aesthetic and spiritual bases of the art of the pen" (2009:431).
The elevation of calligraphy to a sublime level was due in part to Islam's prohibition on depicting idols in art forms such as sculpture and painting (Zakariya 1). As Hubbard explains, "One profound difference between Islamic art and the art of the rest of the world is that the religion prohibits pictures of people and animals. As a result, the focus of Islamic art has always been on the sacred words written in the holiest of Islamic books, the Koran. While people and animals could not be shown, artists were free to enrich their calligraphy with decoration. This they did with great enthusiasm using designs based on plants and flowers, together with crowning abstract patterns called 'arabesques'" (22). According to Schimmel, "The arabesque, that is, strictly speaking, a tendril that grows through leaves, palmettes, and flowers without end, ever expanding, is the central motif of Islamic art. The decorative pattern of the seemingly central motif continues infinitely by being doubled, halved, or by means of simple or twisted mirror effects, all based on sophisticated mathematical rules" (1992:46).
Muslims throughout the centuries have consequently focused their artistic efforts on architecture, literature, arabesque, and calligraphy. Like their monk counterparts in the Western world during the Middle Ages who painstakingly copied the Holy Bible in their scriptoriums with elaborate illuminations, Muslim calligraphers were dedicated to copying the Quran — an effort deemed to confer significant spiritual merit on the calligrapher (Zakariya 2). Brown, Anderson, Bauer, Hirst, and Miller emphasize that "Islamic calligraphy begins with the Quran and the need for its precise and appropriate transmission" (178).
Two forms of Arabic script were in use by the seventh century CE: an angular script known as Jazm and a more stylized, elongated form known as Kufah (Brown et al. 178). After the thirteenth century, Kufic fell out of general use and was mainly employed for decorative purposes. Several more rounded, cursive scripts had also been used for personal and administrative purposes, but "early attempts at improvement had led to the creation of more than 20 different styles, all lacking elegance and discipline" (Brown et al. 178). Sakkal similarly notes that "cursive scripts coexisted with Kufic and date back to before Islam, but because in the early stages of their development they lacked discipline and elegance, they were usually used for secular purposes only. In a slow but continuous process, older styles were perfected, while new styles were invented to meet the demands of different occasions" (1993:6).
During the tenth century, the renowned Baghdad calligrapher Ibn Muqlah endeavored to redesign these twenty disparate styles to make them more suitable for copying the Quran. His system rested on three mathematical measurements (Brown et al. 178):
1. The rhombic dot, formed by pressing the pen diagonally on the paper so that the length of the dot's equal sides matched the width of the pen.
2. The standard alif, a straight vertical line measuring a specific number of dots, primarily between five and seven.
3. The standard circle, with a diameter equal to the length of the standard alif.
As a result, early Islamic calligraphy styles were related to the width of the pen being used and the number of dots used to form the standard alif (Brown et al. 178). Sakkal explains that "the measuring system of Ibn Muqlah is based on a circle with a diameter that equals the height of the letter Alef. It controls the correct proportions of the letters by comparing them to the circle, and by diagonal dots written with the calligraphy pen" (1993:9). The religious significance of the circle was integral to these revisions. Ernst, citing an early treatise, illustrates this point: "God (glory be to the Most High) created the world in a circular form. The master Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Muqla the scribe (may God have mercy on him) realized that writing could be made circular. He transmitted that method of [round] Kufic in this fashion that is now current, so that it would be related to the creation of the Earth, which is the principle of all principles" (432).
The religious significance of calligraphy was also rooted in the connection between the calligrapher and the divine message of the Quran. As Ganem notes, "Calligraphy was perceived as capturing the spirit of the calligrapher through the contiguous relation of his hand with the reed pen and paper. In this way, the calligrapher partakes in the sacredness of the Qur'an, for it is through his body that the text is copied and made evident" (2009:2).
"Sacred geometry and prominent calligraphic texts"
"Evidence of women practicing calligraphy in early Islam"
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islamic Spirituality: Manifestations. New York: Crossroad Herder, 1997.
Rodriguez, Antonio. "Islam and Symbolism." Military Review 88.3 (2008): 106–108.
Sakkal, Mamoun. The Art of Arabic Calligraphy: The Language and the Script. Sakkal.com, 1993. Web.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam: An Introduction. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Simonowitz, David. "A Modern Master of Islamic Calligraphy and Her Peers." Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 6.1 (2010): 75–79.
Zakariya, Muhammad. "Islamic Calligraphy: A Technical Overview." In Brocade of the Pen: The Art of Islamic Writing, edited by Carol Garrett Fisher. East Lansing: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991.
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