Traditional Calligraphy & Modern Art
This paper discusses the traditional art of calligraphy in the contemporary cultural context, with particular reference to recent efforts on the one hand to “modernize Islamic calligraphy” and on the other hand to…
Calligraphy in Islamic art – beyond pen and paper
The development of sophisticated calligraphy as an art form is not unique to Islamic culture. Other examples include Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and illuminated bibles from north-west Europe including the famous Book of…
Sadequain and Calligraphic Modernism
This article examines the career of the immensely productive Sadequain Naqqash (1930-87), Pakistan’s most celebrated artis
SADEQUAIN’S Calligraphy
Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Pakistani Awards), also often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash, was a world-renowned Pakistani artist, best known for his skills as a calligrapher and a…
Smithsonian collection of Qur’anic manuscripts
A collection of 9th–19th-century Korans (intact volumes and detached folios) from Iran, the Arab world, and Turkey at the Freer and Sackler galleries of Smithsonian’s Museums of Asian Art. Folio from a Koran…
LACMA Collection of Islamic Calligraphy
Calligraphic Artwork at LACMA. Click on any image for more details. andalus calligraphy calligraphy art in umayyad period Illuminated Islamic Manuscripts muslim wedding letter model
Styles of Calligraphy
From the book – ‘Calligraphy and Islamic Culture’. Come, O pen of composition and write letters. In the name of the Writer of the Well-preserved Tablet and the Pen!1 Thus begins a sixteenth-century…
The Shah Jehan (Emperor’s) Album
The Shah Jahan Album, also known as the Emperor’s Album or Kevorkian Album, features fifty illustrated and calligraphy folios, forty-one of which belong to the Metropolitan Museum, and nine of which reside in…
Album leaf with a Shii invocation, 17th century
This leaf of fine nastaliq calligraphy was conceived as an artistic endeavor, in which the writing is integrated with the ornamental background. The decorative technique of marbleizing paper spread from Iran to Turkey…
Leaf from a Qur’an manuscript, late 9th–10th century
This page is from a dispersed manuscript, many folios of which once belonged to the scholar R. M. Riefstahl. The angular kufic script is moderated by the roundness of several letters that look…
Textile fragment, late 10th century
Cotton textiles from the eastern Islamic world were often inexpensively decorated with simple painted brushstrokes. The painted surface decoration of these textiles imitates the more luxurious type with embroidered silk inscriptions and also…
Leaf from an Arabic translation of the Materia Medica of Dioscorides
This folio is painted in the lively and appealing style of the Baghdad School: bright colors, sprightly figures in contemporary local dress, and a balanced, bilaterally symmetrical composition. The neutral color of the…
