Calligraphy
A growing collection of calligraphy: verses of the Qur’an, devotional texts and poetry, written in the classical scripts of the Islamic and Persian world. Each piece is shown with its script, the calligrapher, the original text and a translation.
The scripts
- Kufic: the earliest Qur’anic script, angular and monumental.
- Naskh: clear and rounded, the everyday script of copied Qur’ans and books.
- Thuluth: tall, sweeping letters used on mosque inscriptions.
- Nastaliq: the flowing, slanted hand of Persian and Urdu poetry, long used in Kashmir.