How to Drawing Arabic Calligraphy

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So that this course can be enjoyed by everyone, including those without previous knowledge of Arabic, an introduction to the script and to the basics of that alphabet is necessary before we start working with calligraphy proper. This is why this first lesson is unusually lecture-like. However, even Arabic speakers may find here something they didn't know before, as we don't necessarily learn much about the script itself in school or daily life.

Kufic vs. Rounded Scripts: A History

Arabic calligraphic scripts can be divided into two great families: the so-called rectilinear scripts (Kufic), and the cursive or round scripts. Although Kufic is too often presented as if it were a single, specific script among the rest, that is a mistake, and it can be only be reduced to a formula in an artificial way. To clarify this, I will briefly describe the respective history of these two families and explain their fundamental differences. (Note that all the names by which we designate the scripts are applied in retrospect. Period sources used them more fluidly if at all.)

Birth of the Rectilinear Scripts

In pre-Islamic days, writing was known to the peoples of the Arabian peninsula, and a rudimentary Arabic script was in use. It was rudimentary because they had little use for it, being a culture with a strong oral tradition, and the earliest texts that have come to us show all the awkwardness of a system that hasn't yet found its legs.

Rise of the Round Scripts

On the other hand, in the Mashriq ("sunrise" or "East", the Levant and Middle East), where the capitals of the Muslim world were always situated, vast amounts of administrative work meant a multitude of professional scribes, and that inevitably led to the rise of cursive or round scripts, quicker to write and more adapted to the smaller scale of letters and official documents.