Kufic

Kufic script (Arabic: الخط الكوفي‎) is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts. It developed from the Nabataean alphabet in the city of Kufa, from which its name is derived.[1] Kufic script is characterized by angular, rectilinear letterforms and its horizontal orientation.[1] There are many different versions of Kufic script, such as square Kufic, floriated Kufic, knotted Kufic, and others.[1]

Square Kufic

Square Kufic (Arabic: الكوفي المُرَبَّع‎), also sometimes known as banna'i (بنائي, "masonry" script), is a bare Arabic writing form that developed in the 12th century.[20][21] The calligrapher Mamoun Sakkal described its development as an "exceptional step towards simplification in Kufic styles that evolved towards more complexity in the preceding centuries."[20] Square Kufic was originally created in architecture with bricks and tiles functioning as pixels.[21] Legibility is not a priority of this script.[21]

  • Geometric Kufic sample (Surah 112, al-Ikhlas or "The Surah of Monotheism", of the Qur'an), read clockwise, starting at bottom left (begins with the Basmala).
  • Geometric Kufic from the Bou Inania Madrasa (Meknes); the text reads بركة محمد or barakat muḥammad, i.e. Muhammad's blessing.
  • Another example of geometric or square Kufic script, showing four instances of the name Muhammad (in black) and four times Ali (in white); often used as a tilework pattern in Islamic architecture
  • The flag of Iran (1980)
  • Arabic text of the Shahada in square Kufic script, shown as buildings topped with minarets.
  • Banna'i on a minaret – a repetitive pattern of square Kufic inscriptions.
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Kufic script in Qurans:
  • Page from a Qur'an in Kufic style, 8th century (Surah 15: 67–74)
  • Kufic script from an early Qur'an manuscript, 8th-9th century. (Surah 7: 86–87)
  • Manuscript of the Surat Maryam of the Qur'an; Kufic script on gazelle skin, 9th century. (Surah 19: 83–86)
  • The leaves from this Qur'an written in gold and contoured with brown ink have a horizontal format. (9th century)
  • Folio of a Qur'an in kufic style, ink, color and gold, 11th century, Iran. (Surah 92: 1–5)
  • Bifolio of Surat Al-An'am in the "Nurse’s Quran” (مصحف الحاضنة), commissioned by a patron named Fatima under the Zirid Dynasty in the early 11th century.[22]
  • Abbassid Quran, Persia, late 11th / early 12th century

Kufic script elsewhere:
  • Bowl with Kufic Inscription, 9th century - Brooklyn Museum
  • Bowl with Kufic Calligraphy, 10th century - Brooklyn Museum.
  • 11th-century gold Fatimid armlet, inscribed with good wishes in the Kufic script, (Syria).
  • Kufic alphabet, from Fry's Pantographia (1799)
  • Almoravid Kufic adorning the Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque.
  • Inscription in Kufic (743). The Walters Art Museum.
  • Drawing of an inscription of Basmala in Kufic script, 9th century. The original is in the Islamic Museum in Cairo (Inventar-Nr. 7853)
  • The flag of Iraq (2008)

See also

Notes
  1. www.metmuseum.org https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/art-of-the-islamic-world/unit-two/the-development-and-spread-of-calligraphic-scripts#. Retrieved 2019-12-17. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Blair, Sheila S. (2006). Islamic Caligraphy. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-7486-1212-3.
  3. Al-Amin, Salwa Ibraheem Tawfeeq. "The Origin of the Kufic Script": 3, 6. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. George, Alain (2010). The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy. pp. 55, 56, 57, 65, 72. ISBN 978-0-86356-673-8.
  5. Tan, Enis Timuçin (1999). "A Study of Kufic Script in Islamic Calligraphy and Its relevance to Turkish Graphic Art Using Latin Fonts in the late twentieth century": 42. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Cohen, Julia (May 2014). "Early Qur'ans (8th–Early 13th Century)". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  7. Al-Amin, Salwa Ibraheem Tawfeeq. "The Origin of the Kufic Script": 3, 6. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. Fraser, Marcus (2006). Ink and Gold Islamic Calligraphy. London. pp. 28, 46. ISBN 0954901487.
  9. George, Alain (2010). The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy. pp. 55, 56, 57, 65, 72. ISBN 978-0-86356-673-8.
  10. Jazayeri, S. M. V. Mousavi; Michelli, Perette E.; Abulhab, Saad D. (2017). A Handbook of Early Arabic Kufic Script: Reading, Writing, Calligraphy, Typography, Monograms. New York: Blautopf Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 9780998172743.
  11. Wilson, Eva (1988). Islamic Designs for Artists and Craftspeople. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 11. ISBN 048625819X.
  12. "Arabic scripts". British Museum. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  13. "The Spirit of Islam: Experiencing Islam through Calligraphy". UBC Museum of Anthropology. Archived from the original on 8 November 2002. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  14. Jazayeri, S. M. V. Mousavi; Ringgenberg, Patrick; Michelli, Perette E.; Chaharmahali, Ali M.; Jazayeri, S. M. H. Mousavi (2015). Kufic Inscriptions of the Historic Grand Mosque of Shoushtar. New York: Blautopf Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 9781511537995.
  15. George, Alain (2010). The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy. pp. 55, 56, 57, 65, 72. ISBN 978-0-86356-673-8.
  16. Ekhtiar, Maryam (July 2015). "Tiraz: Inscribed Textiles from the Early Islamic Period". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  17. George, Alain (2010). The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy. pp. 55, 56, 57, 65, 72. ISBN 978-0-86356-673-8.
  18. Jonathan M. Bloom; Sheila Blair (2009). The Grove encyclopedia of Islamic art and architecture. Oxford University Press. pp. 101, 131, 246. ISBN 978-0-19-530991-1. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  19. Mack, p.51
  20. Sakkal, Mamoun. (2004). Principles of Square Kufic Calligraphy. Hroof Arabiyya. 4. 4-12.
  21. "Creative Arabic Calligraphy: Square Kufic". Design & Illustration Envato Tuts+. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  22. "Islamic art from museums around the world". Arab News. 2020-05-18. Retrieved 2020-05-18.

References
  • Mack, Rosamond E. Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300–1600, University of California Press, 2001 ISBN 0-520-22131-1
  • Wolfgang Kosack: Islamische Schriftkunst des Kufischen. Geometrisches Kufi in 593 Schriftbeispielen. Deutsch – Kufi – Arabisch. Christoph Brunner, Basel 2014, ISBN 978-3-906206-10-3.
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