Classical Islamic Art Is Highly Abstract and Geometrical Its Artists Sought to

From holy script to Huroufiyah — the sweep of Islamic calligraphy through the centuries

Beginning with the angular scripts of a yard years ago and evolving into abstraction in the 20th century, the Arabic written word has been used to create some of the virtually cute and sophisticated artworks in the globe

When the prophet Muhammad died in 632 AD, he left behind the religion of Islam, flourishing amid a few nomadic tribes in the Arabian desert. These communities were small-scale, ideologically divided and surrounded past the powerful Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Within a few decades, however, Arab armies had conquered and converted a territory then vast information technology extended from southern Iran to the Iberian Peninsula.

'Information technology is one of the well-nigh significant events in earth history,' says Frances Keyworth, Christie's cataloguer in Islamic and Indian Fine art. As the armies spread out across the continents, they introduced Islamic ideas to the societies they encountered, ushering in what Keyworth describes as 'a golden age of Islamic art and architecture'.

'Calligraphy is transmitting the vox of the Divine. No other fine art form is then exalted'— specialist Frances Keyworth

This rich culture was forged from a combination of classical influences, religious laws and scientific concepts, with the written word at its centre. 'One Standard arabic proverb proclaims that purity of writing is purity of soul,' says Keyworth.

Calligraphy: Art in Writing brings together an boggling collection of artefacts from the Middle East, Northward Africa and Europe to celebrate the thousand-year-old art of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman calligraphy. It as well shows how the written word has been used across a range of materials to create some of the world's almost cute and mathematically sophisticated artworks.

The three key elements of Islamic art

'Arabic calligraphy primarily developed as a way of delivering the Word of God through the holy scripture of the Qur'an,' says Keyworth.

A calligraphic composition In Square Kufic, Qur'an CXIV, sura al-nas, the word Allah picked out and illuminated in gold, green and red. Signed and dated lower left, the reverse plain, mounted. Signed Mati, dated AH 1431/2009-10 Advertizement. 28⅛ x 28⅛ in (71.5 10 71.5 cm) including margins. Offered on 17 March-7 April 2021, Online

There are three key elements in Islamic art: geometry, arabesque and calligraphy, and they are used separately or together to create intricate designs. 'Calligraphy is at the top of the hierarchy,' says Keyworth, 'because it is transmitting the vocalization of the Divine. No other fine art form is and then exalted.'

The origins of Arabic calligraphy

One of the primeval known forms of calligraphy is Kufic, named after the city of Kufah in Iraq. Offered in the auction is a 9th-century Qur'an folio (beneath), which shows the angularity of the style. The Qur'an was still an oral tradition at the fourth dimension, says Keyworth, then this text, written on vellum, would merely have served as a reading prompt for the speaker.

A Kufic Qur'an folio, North Africa or Near East, 9th-10th century. Arabic manuscript on vellum. Folio: 5½ x 8⅝ in (fourteen x 21.viii cm). Offered on 17 March-7 Apr 2021, Online

From the 11th century, scripts became more cursive cheers to the availability of paper, which was smoother, enabling the pen to glide over the surface with greater ease. Scribes began experimenting with dissimilar-sized nibs, and precise rules were devised prescribing the size and length of each letter of the alphabet.

This resulted in a series of proportional scripts, among them Naskh, Thuluth and Muhaqqaq, which used a sophisticated system of measurements based on a specific number of diamond-shaped dots for each alphabetic character. Other scripts, notably the Maghribi that adult in Spain and North Africa, were characterised past deep swooping curves.

A pink Qur'an page, Spain, 13th century. Sold for £9,375 on 7 April 2021, Online

Arabesque motifs, geometrical designs and luminous gold

As calligraphy developed, artists began framing their scripts with arabesque motifs and geometrical designs. 'Geometric patterns can form letters and vice versa,' says Keyworth, revealing that the 3 primary elements of Islamic art are to some extent mutable and can tessellate into i some other.

'Y'all begin to meet scripts such as Kufic and Thuluth decorating glazed ceramics and metalwork and actualization on the walls of secular and religious places,' says Keyworth. 'Great attention was given to the aesthetic entreatment and ornamental quality of the writing.'

The sale includes a 19th-century pair of wooden doors (below) that are intricately carved in a complex design using the Kufic script.

A pair of carved wooden doors, Qajar Iran, 19th century (particular). 76⅜ x 20⅞ in (194 ten 53 cm); 76 10 xviii¾ in (193 ten 47.5 cm). Sold for £12,500 on vii April 2021, Online

Every bit calligraphic techniques became more than sophisticated, artists were sought out by rulers to create opulent commissions. One of the most famous scribes of the 16th century was the Western farsi calligrapher Sultan 'Ali Mashadi (1453-1520), who served at the courtroom of Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara (1438-1506) in Herat.

'His calligraphy is surrounded with beautiful scrolling arabesques on gold,' says Keyworth, adding that his work is instantly recognisable on account of its luminous clarity.

A calligraphic console signed Sultan 'Ali (Mashhadi), Herat, early on 16th century. Text panel: x ten 6¼ in (25.5 10 16 cm). Folio 12 x 8¼ in (30 x 21cm). Sold for £3,250 on 7 April 2021, Online

The motion towards brainchild

By the late 19th century, manuscripts had get so resplendent that they sparked a desire in some to discover a purer artful. The female artist Ruqiyah Banu was a pioneer of the spare nakhuni way, using only a sheet of white newspaper and a fingernail to create impressions.

Such technical innovation had a profound touch on modern artists in the Heart East and North Africa, who recognised in these radical techniques the elements of abstraction. A revolutionary new art was on the horizon.

The nascence of a new visual linguistic communication: Huroufiyah

In the early 20th century, Islamic artists, aware of the innovations in the West, invented a new visual language, liberating the Standard arabic letter from its religious context and using it in a purely abstract way. The motion came to exist known equally Huroufiyah, from the word hurouf, meaning 'alphabetic character'.

One of the major exponents of the movement was the painter Madiha Umar (1908-2005), whose 1949 text,Arabic Calligraphy: An Inspiring Element in Abstract Art,outlined the possibilities for the medium.

'The letter notwithstanding stands out, and then magnificently colourful, fascinating, intricate, and ornamental… The idea dawned on me that Standard arabic calligraphy, which is abstract and yet and so symbolic in its essence, need non be limited any more to the infinite-filling of geometrical pattern.'

Ismail Gulgee, Untitled (Abstract Forms), 1966. Mixed media on canvas. 61 x twoscore in (154.9 x 101.6 cm). Offered on 17 March-7 April 2021, Online

Shortly artists were exploring the potential of the letter in all aspects of modern art. The Pakistani painter Ismail Gulgee (1926-2007) revealed the dynamism of Huroufiyah in his action paintings, the Modernist Jamil Hamoudi (1924-2003) recognised its potential for Surrealist wordplay and Cubist abstraction, and the Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi (b. 1939) experimented with the graphic possibilities of calligraphy in affiche blueprint.

Dia al-Azzawi, Hommage to Baghdad, 1982. 10 screen prints on Arches Velin handmade paper. Sheets 21½ 10 xix½ in each. Sold for £xvi,250 on 7 Apr 2021, Online

Some saw Huroufiyah every bit a pan-Arabist art movement that could unite the Islamic world in the wake of colonialism; others, notably the painter Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925-2004), even so held onto the spiritual, meditative qualities of calligraphy. Al Said wrote in his 1973 manifesto I Dimension   that the human action of calligraphy was an almost existential feel that brought the creator closer to God.

Such ideas keep to exist explored in the harmonious paintings of the immature, gimmicky artists Muzzumil Ruheel (b. 1985) and Mohammad Ali Talpur (b. 1976).

Muzzumil Ruheel, Holding on to the Sky, 2020. Ink and acrylic lacquer on wasli.26½ 10 twenty in ( 67.three 10 50.8 cm). Sold for £3,000 on seven April 2021, Online

Many of these artists are also on evidence in Abstraction and Calligraphy — Towards a Universal Language, an exhibition at the Louvre Abu Dhabi (until 12 June) that charts the history of Standard arabic calligraphy over the past 100 years, also as exploring the idea that painters in the West were influenced by artistic innovations in calligraphy in the East.

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As Keyworth observes, 'The fine art of calligraphy has a universal appeal, and that is why it adult then quickly and became then sought-afterward from the Middle Ages onwards. Its beautiful proportions and exquisite luminosity are something that everyone can appreciate.'

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Source: https://www.christies.com/features/The-art-of-Arabic-calligraphy-11561-1.aspx

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