write and read and soon replaced the earlier geometric style, except for decorative purposes. The canonical "six cursive scripts" (al-aqlam al-sittah) were pioneered by the  Persian   Ibn Muqla Shirazi  (d. 939) and later refined by his successors  Ibn al-Bawwab  (d. 1022) and Yaqut al-Musta'simi  (d. 1298). Naskh script was the