| When we speak of
Turkish calligraphy, we refer to writing of aesthetic value in
characters based on the Arabic script, which the Turks had
adopted as their writing medium after their conversion to Islam.
The Arabic characters gradually assumed an aesthetic function
after the advent of Islam, and this process gathered momentum
from the mid-eighth century onwards, so that calligraphy was
already a significant art discipline by the time the Turks
joined the Islamic world. Therefore it is necessary to begin
with a brief review of the structure of Arabic characters and
their development during the early centuries of Islam. The most
succinct definition of calligraphy formulated by Islamic writers
is, "Calligraphy is a spiritual geometry produced with
material tools." The aesthetic values implied by this
definition held true for centuries.
Under this writing system most of
the letters underwent a change of form according to whether they
were positioned at the beginning, middle or end of a word. When
transformed into an art the characters took on highly elaborate
shapes, and the rich
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In the name of God, O
merciful,O compassionate.
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visual impact attained when they
were joined together, and above all the fact that the same word
or phrase could be written in various ways opened the door to
the infinite variety and innovation which is a prerequisite of
art. Just as the characters could be written singly in several
different ways, so there was an astonishing diversity of
different scripts or "hands". The Arabic characters
were adopted — primarily motivated by religious fervour by
virtually all the peoples who converted to Islam, so that just a
few centuries after the Hegira they had become the shared
property of the entire Muslim world. The term "Arabic
calligraphy", which is appropriate with respect to the
early period, broadened in scope over time to become what more
accurately might be described as "Islamic
calligraphy".
This writing system, known as
nabatî because it was used by the Nabat tribe in pre-Islamic
times, derives from the Phoenician. In its early form, the
script gave no clue of its future potential as such a powerfully
aesthetic medium, the characters consisting of very simple
shapes. With the emergence of Islam, however, and particularly
after the Hegira, the Arabic script became the literary vehicle
of the last Semitic religion. The numbers of those literate in
the Arabic script multiplied rapidly, and in time it was
perfected into a vehicle equipped to record the Koran, and hence
the language as a whole, with precision. Vowel signs known as
hareke were invented to express the short phonemes which
accompanied the consonants. The method of determining the sound
of letters which resembled one another in form, by means of
disparate positioning and diacritical marks was developed. As
time passed, the use of diacritics to distinguish the undotted
from the dotted forms of the same letters was introduced. Both
the diacritics, the vowel signs and the unmarked letter symbols
took on decorative forms which played a major role in the
development of writing as an art. Meanwhile, the frequently used
definite article, consisting of the letters alif and lâm,
became a balancing element in the aesthetics of calligraphy.
At different periods, depending
on the centre of calligraphy at the time, the Arabic script was
known variously as anbarî, hîrî and mekkî in pre-Islamic
times, and after the Hegira these were qualified by the term
medenî. The Koran, which was the first Islamic text compiled in
book form, was first written in mekkî-medenî hand in black ink
on parchment, without diacritics or vowel signs. Not
surprisingly, artistic considerations were not a concern for the
early Koran copyists. In time this style of writing divided into
two forms; the sharply angled form being reserved for Korans and
important correspondence. Since this was most often used in the
city of Kûfa, it became known as kûfî.
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The other form, which did
not have sharp angles and could be written at far greater
speeds, was employed in day-to-day uses, and due to its rounded,
flexible character was suited to artistic application. Under the
Umayyads, the spread and evolution of this script in Damascus
was rapid. It was this form which began to give rise to new
scripts after the development of pens with nibs of different
widths in the eighth century. Among the earliest of these were
the celîl reserved for large scale lettering, and tomar or tûmar
which was the standard large size pen used in official
correspondence. Pens with a nib width two thirds of that of the
tomar pen were known as sülüseyn, and those with nibs one
third in width were known as sülüs. These were to give their
names to the scripts which were written with them. Other new
writing styles which emerged (although all later fell into
disuse) were riyasî, kalemü'n-nisf, hafîfü'n-nisf and hafîfü's-sülüs.
As their names indicate, some of the new scripts were based on
tomar and written with pens which were specific fractions (half,
one third, or two thirds) of the tomar pen. In the process of
scaling down, the scripts took on new characteristics of their
own, while the word kalem, which referred to the writing
instrument, also came to be used for the writing itself (for
example, kalemü'n-nisf literally means "half pen").
For scripts such as kisas and muâmerat, which were invented for
specific uses and did not involve the proportional scaling down
of the pen, the term hat was used.
Under the Abbasids, learning and
the arts flourished, leading to a swelling demand for books in
Baghdad and other major cities. To meet this demand the number
of copyists known as verrak also rose, and the script which they
employed in the copying of manuscripts was known as verrâkî,
muhakkak or irâkî. From the end of the eighth century, as a
result of the search for aesthetic values by calligraphers,
writing forms according to specific proportions and symmetries
became known as aslî hat and mevzûn hat. One of the
calligraphers who contributed to the development of writing, and
the most outstanding among those of this period was Ibn Mukle (?
-328/940), who drew up rules for calligraphic composition.
Lettering complying with these rules was called mensûh hatti, a
term meaning "proportional writing".
While these developments were taking
place, kûfî script was enjoying its heyday, above all for
copying korans. Kûfî displayed regional variations, becoming
more rounded in the northern Africa countries, and continuing to
predominate above all in Andalusia and in
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"Zoomorphic"
calligraphy: the script means "In the name of
God" and forms a bird; its neckband reads "O
Merciful, O Compassionate".
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the Maghrib, where it became known
as magribî. In Persia and further east, meanwhile, kûfî was
transformed into a script known as mesrik kûfîsi, which was
used until superseded by the aklâm-i sitte scripts. The large
scale form of kûfî known as iri kûfî, which was mainly used
on monuments, was reserved for decorative purposes in
combination with some elements of embellishment. The form of
mensûb hatti known as verrâkî mentioned above, which was
generally reserved for copying books and therefore known as neshî
(a derivation of the verb istinsah, "to copy"), was
the prototype for the muhakkak, reyhânî and nesih scripts
which emerged in the early eleventh century.
The most outstanding calligrapher
of this period, Ibnü'l-Bevvâb (? -413/1022) introduced changes
to the rules set by Ibn Mukle and the style he initiated was
widely used until the mid-thirteenth century. The calligrapher
Ibnü'l-Hâzin (? -518/1124) contributed to the evolution of the
tevkî' and rika' scripts, and finally Yâkûtü'l-Musta'simî
(? -698/1298) who developed the rules set by Ibnü'l-Bevvâb and
wrote the finest thirteenth century forms of sülüs, nesih,
muhakkak, reyhânî, tevkî' and rika' appeared in Baghdad. The
above six scripts are known as aklâm-i sitte ("the six
hands"). The idea of cutting the nib of the reed pen at an
angle instead of horizontally was his, and an innovation which
contributed enormous elegance to writing. Once "the six
hands" had taken their place in the art of calligraphy
together with all their rules, many scripts apart from those
mentioned above were abandoned, and no trace of them but their
names remains today (for example, sicillât, dîbâc, zenbûr,
mufattah, harem, lûlûî, muallâk and mürsel).
Following the death of Yâkût
his conception of "the six hands" was carried by
scribes who had trained under him from Baghdad to Anatolia,
Egypt, Syria, Persia and Transoxania. New generations of
calligraphers who trained in these lands dedicated themselves to
the path taken by Yâkût as far as their aptitude permitted.
However, as time passed changes crept in. In the hands of the
Ottoman Turks, these six scripts were poised to begin the ascent
to their zenith.
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