The Arabic calligraphic styles

1. The Arabic calligraphic styles By Bassam A. Alahmadi

2. Introduction First, Iʼm going to talk about the beginning of the Arabic alphabet. After that, we well go on to the Arabic calligraphic styles because there are many beautiful kinds of them with their special names.

3. The origin of the Arabic script goes back to the first alphabet created by the Phoenicians. They were living (1300 BC) on the coastal area of Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Since the Phoenicians were traders sailing through out the Mediterranean, their alphabet influenced all Mediterranean cultures and nations.

4. Actually, several Arabic calligraphic styles developed in various Arabian cities, with different writing techniques and writing tools.

5. The most known Arabic calligraphic styles are: 1. Kufi (Old Kufi and Ornamented Geometric Kufi): the name “Kufi” originated from the city Kufa in Iraq. 2. Thuluth: the name “Thuluth” originated from the names of bamboo sticks that were used as writing tools. 3. Diwani and Diwani Djeli: the “Diwan” style developed during the Ottoman Empire, and the name comes from the political documents called “Diwan” in Arabic.

6. 4. Naskh: the Ottoman Empire also give rise to the “Naskh” style; “Naskh” is named after the ʾNaskhʿ action when the scribes copied Arabic text, and it was still used in printing of the “Holy Quran”.

7. 5. Persian: named after the Persian language. 6. Ruqaa: the name originated from the leather “Ruqaa” that the script was written on. 7. Maghrebi: is a stylized Kufi script developed in Morocco.

9. In conclusion, I found that the Arabic calligraphy is very flexible so we can be easy to write it in many shapes.

10. Resources: • “Design studies at Type”, Dissertation of Master degree, Pascal Zoghbi, May 2007. (from 29 Arabic Letters Blog). • www.blog.nbares.com • adoobemaster.wordpress.com

11. Acknowledgement

12. Thank you for your attention