num_pages: 240
description: Calligraphy, the art which combines images with the written word, is perhaps at its most brilliant in the Islamic world. Islamic calligraphy took its inspiration from Muslim belief in the divine origin of Arabic writing, the medium through which the Quranic revelation to the Prophet Muhammad was recorded. In the early years of Islam the sanctity of Arabic writing was accepted among Arabs and no-Arabs alike, and its use in sacred and official texts gave rise to a wonderful profusion of scripts and a calligraphic tradition that has flourished for over a thousand years — not only in manuscript decoration but in architecture, ceramics, and painting. The Splendour of Islamic Calligraphy, widely acclaimed on first publication as the most lavish and sumptuous study of its kind, provides a comprehensive and fascinating survey of the subject from its earliest origins to the present day. Its explains with the help if numerous lime drawings the geometrical and ornamental principles of calligraphy, and examines the interdependence of script and page decoration. It gives an overview of the complex variations of this most graphic forms of writing and traces its evolution right up to its current expression in the painting of artists such Shakir Hassan. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it contains outstanding examples of scripts — kufic, thuluth, naskhi, and maghribi among others — im a series of magnificent photographs. Many in colour and some showing enlarged details these photographs reproduce in stunning detail a range of manuscript pages, paintings and other works of art to illustrate the supreme craftsmanship of Islamic calligraphy.
language: English
title: The Splendor of Islamic Calligraphy
titlecomplete: The Splendor of Islamic Calligraphy
genres: Art History, Art
ratings_count: 44
publisher: Thames & Hudson