Number 266, Friday, June 24, 2011 to 22 Rajab 1432

Book Review - Development of Islamic calligraphy

By Ahmed J Versi

The rise of Islamic calligraphy. By Alain Georges. London. Saqi. 2010. pp236. HB. 35.

Alain Georges excellent book, the rise of Islamic calligraphy, deals with the development of Arabic calligraphy from pre-Islamic times to the modern style of writing.

It also illustrates briefly how a similar structure is Islamic architecture and calligraphy and how they are related.

The Chinese and Japanese calligraphy is created with a paintbrush on a sheet of white paper that could be considered as a canvas. In contrast to western calligraphy, calligraphy in the Far East is not a job but an art. In fact, it is often referred to as art in art, because it uses both the media and visual language to move the viewer emotionally (poetry of words combined with the imagery of lines, the beauty of the composition, his energy and passion makes sense of the artist). Calligraphy is also referred to as "imaging of the heart" or "painting the soul".In addition, there are six groups of Chinese characters according to their different etymology. One of them is called 象形文字 (shokeimoji, pictographic characters)....

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“Black ink based on carbon mixed with plant gums had been known since Biblical times and was used by both the Egyptians and the Romans. This type of carbon ink does not penetrate the support. It is water-soluble and erasable with water, partly because of the impenetrable surface of the papyrus on which it was traditionally used. This type of ink was often associated with water. The Koran (18:109) mentions that if the sea were ink (

“This type of carbon-based ink that adheres only weakly to the surface can be contrasted to the second type of ink based on metal tannates, in which mixtures of metal salts and tannins produce small amounts of acid that penetrate the support surface. The earliest recipes for this type of ink mix metal salts (usually alum or copper sulfates) with carbon-based preparations, probably to improve the adherent qualities. Eventually, extracts of gall were mixed with iron salt to produce the type known as iron-gall ink.

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