Calligraphy is one of the ancient arts in Persian culture and Islamic calligraphy has been being a mutual and important art between Arabic and Persian artists during the history. The art of calligraphy is a valuable art for Muslims because this visualizes the word of inspiration of holy Quran. They have been utilizing the Islamic Calligraphy not only in holy Quran inscriptions but also in many poem writings and paintings over the walls of mosques for many years. Evolution and changing the script to the art of calligraphy is being seen between Muslim artists more than the other societies. We can judge it by visiting and watching the Islamic-Persian monuments in which such an art is painted there.
Calligraphy in Islam
Arabic tribes started write and editing the books many years later than Chinese and Babylonian tribes because they used to memorize the anecdotes and didn’t believe in writing.
The sixth century AD when Arabic literature started to emerge, the importance of script increased between that tribes because the poem was a critical thing for them to be recorded. The first tribes who invented the Arabic script were “Nanaties“. After that, “Samies” tribe who used to live on north part of Arabia land edited that script. With developing traditional trade and politics the importance increased more than previous years between “Hireh” and “Anbar” tribes. Then script developed and distributed to Mecca city.
After emerging Islam, writing and recording of holy Quran became vital and necessary for Muslims. So, calligraphers tried their best to learn how to write in beautiful and also readable way in order to transfer information and convey the meanings of holy Quran without any false information. This issue caused art of Islamic calligraphy to be emerged in that era. In Islamic and Arabic history Ali ibn Abi Talib was one the most famous calligrapher the first Imam of Shia Muslims.
Islamic calligraphy has deferent main types which are:
- Mohaghegh
- Reyhan
- Naskh
- Sols
- Regha
- Toghee
They are different from each other in shapes of alphabet and line curves.
Calligraphy in Persian architecture
Calligraphy which is one of the most beautiful elements in Persian art, has an ancient history. Although Iran was not an Arabic country, with entering Islam, Islamic Calligraphy became popular in this country in a way you can see this art in magnificent way in ancient Persian architecture historic monument.
Between historic monuments you can see an such intriguing art on the walls of mosques like Jame mosque in Yazd, Sheikh Lotfollah mosque and Shah Abbass Mosque of Isfahan.
