The Dimension of Sound
Folk Music
Art Music
Techniques and Expression: The Modes
The Instruments of Islamic Music
Religion and Music
Theory and Practice
The Six Periods of Islamic Music
An Introdution to Islamic History
Western Attitudes Toward Islam
Muslim Attitudes Toward the West
Intereaction and Interdependence
Volumes
01. Classical Music of Cairo, Egypt
Al Qāhira
WHAT IS ISLAM?
Islām is a major world religion belonging to the Semitic family; it was
promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the I/7th century. The
Arabic term islām, literally "surrender," illuminates the fundamental
religious idea of Islam—that the believer (called a Muslim, from
the active particle of islām) accepts "surrender to the will of
Allāh (Arabic: God)." Allāh is viewed as the sole God—creator,
sustainer, and restorer of the world. The will of Allāh, to which man
must submit, is made known through the sacred scriptures, the Qur'ān
(Koran), which Allāh revealed to his messenger, Muḥammad. In Islām
Muḥammad is considered the last of a series of prophets (including
Adam, Noah, Jesus, and others), and his message simultaneously
consummates and abrogates the "revelations" attributed to earlier
prophets.
Retaining its emphasis on an uncompromising monotheism and a strict
adherence to certain essential religious practices, the religion taught
by Muḥammad to a small group of followers spread rapidly through the
Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay
Peninsula, China and Indonesia. Although many sectarian movements have
arisen within Islām, all Muslims are bound by a common faith and a
sense of belonging to a single community.
From Muḥammad and the Religion of Islām in Encyclopmdia
Britannica
15th edition, ©1987 by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
reprinted with the permission of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
INTRODUCTION TO
ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY
(vol. 4)
In 610, Muḥammad, a native of Mecca, received the first of a series of
revelations from God, or Allāh. The religion revealed to the Prophet
Muḥammad was Islām and the language of revelation, Arabic. This
monotheistic religion attracted a large following and within one
hundred years, had spread rapidly through religious conversion and
military conquest. At its peak, Islām extended as far west as Morocco,
as far north as Hungary, and as far east as Indonesia. Today, it is the
principal religion in the Middle East, parts of Africa, much of Asia,
and is attracting an increasing following in North America.
After the Prophet's death in 10/632, his successors and the theologians
felt that there was a strong need to record the spoken revelations to
ensure that Allāh's words were not lost or altered, as any omission or
change was considered sacrilegious. By 29/651 the Prophet's teachings
were collected in the Qur'ān, Islām's holy book. It consists of 114
chapters or sūrahs and is all encompassing. It starts with the
declaration of submission to Allāh, and informs the Muslims of their
duty towards Allāh and mankind. It also covers a wide spectrum of
social regulations, ethical and moral issues, provides historical
precedence and is the basis for criminal law.
Islāmic calligraphy owes its origins in large part to the Qur'ān. The
written Qur'ān was equated with Allāh's words and in essence the Arabic
script became the visual symbol of Islām. The need to record it
precisely compelled the Arabs to reform their script and enhance it to
make it worthy of the divine revelation. Arabic is written and read
from right to left and the alphabet consists of twenty-eight letters,
each with four distinct forms. These letters lend themselves to a
variety of elegant and complex transformations. It is the malleability,
in combination with a constant channeling of artistic creativity, which
helped spurn the development of Arabic script into an icon of Islāmic
belief.
Calligraphy also developed as an art form because the religion shunned
figural imagery. Although the Qur'ān itself did not specifically
prohibit figural art, it was strongly discouraged in the Hadīth,
Islam's second most authoritative book on social and religious conduct.
Muslims moved away from figural imagery both because of its association
with pre-Islamic idolatry and to set itself apart from other religions.
When Islām expanded into neighboring countries and began absorbing once
indigenous cultures and languages, Arabic became the dominant language
and script. It united countries as diverse as Turkey, Persia and South
East Asia—all shared a common faith and a common language and
whilst regional variations existed there was a sense of unity within
variety. It is worth noting here that, although the Persians and the
Turks later reverted to their own languages, the Arabic alphabet formed
the basis of their language.
The Kūfic script, which had fully evolved by the II/8th
century, was one of the earliest and most enduring styles to develop
and had one of the most profound effects on Islāmic calligraphy.
Characteristically, it had long horizontal lines and low vertical ones.
It lent itself nicely to the early Qur'āns which were oblong, and the
combination of which gave the script a dynamic of its own. Although
initially austere looking, Kūfic developed into a more complex
ornamental form which continued until the late VI/12th century, when it
lost some of its formidability. It acquired a dignified artistry with
letters rendered in foliated, floriated, plaited, knotted, intertwined
and even in animated form. The latter development was frowned upon by
the conservative Muslims and restricted to non-religious objects of
art. At its most angular and conservative form, kūfic was manipulated
to form intricate geometric patterns often found on mosques, madrasahs
or religious schools, minarets and other religious foundations. The
angularity of the Kūfic script was not only dignified, and thus
suitable to religious works, but was also easily rendered in masonry
thus accounting for its popularity in religious architecture.
From the IV/10th century onwards, cursive writing gained in importance
and acceptance. It was better suited to writing on paper, less
laborious to execute, and had the great advantage of being more
legible. This legibility was especially important given that Islām had
spread to non-native Arabic speaking regions. To date, many hundreds of
styles exist but the six most important and most traditional styles,
known collectively as the sitta, are: naskhi, muhaqqaq,
rayhani, thuluth, tawqi and riqa. More often than not
different styles of calligraphy, i.e., kūfic and naskhi (cursive),
would be used in juxtaposition with remarkable effect, and it is this
interplay of styles and content which makes calligraphy interesting.
Kūfic and the sitta styles form the basis of calligraphy students
today, but the cursive styles have largely replaced their predecessor
in daily writing. Although the ultimate aim of a good calligrapher is
to do the words of the Qur'ān justice, calligraphy, like music, is an
art form in its own right. Mohamed Zakariya (1), an American-Muslim
calligrapher, notes that an illuminated panel is like "a musical piece,
with its mode or key themes, harmonies, variations, discords,
counterpoints, silences and movement, as in the layout of the panel;
its theme colors, secondary colors, golds, papers, types of ornament,
blank areas; the style and placing of calligraphy, its meaning, and the
rhythm of the script itself."
The calligraphy image on the front cover of this volume is a VIII/14th
century version of a page from an encyclopaedic book entitled, The
Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence, or the Ajaib
Al-Makhlukat to give its abbreviated Arabic name. Originally
written by an Arab called Zakariya ibn Mohammed ibn Mahmud Abu Yahya,
also known as Al-Khazwini (605-82/1208-83), the book covered a wide
variety of topics relating to cosmology and geography and was later
translated into Persian and Turkish.
The text is written in naskhi Arabic. It also shows a drawing of the
Archangel Israfil awaiting orders from God to blow his horn. The text
does not match the drawing exactly—the title under Israfil refers
to the Archangel Gabriel. This is not uncommon in manuscripts because
the calligraphers and illuminators specialized in their respective
fields. Thus a calligrapher would allocate some space to an illuminator
when he deemed it appropriate, occasionally resulting in misalignment.
The calligraphy panel located inside the front and back covers features
a contemporary proclamation of faith written in plaited and
square kūfic on three levels. All Muslims must proclaim the shahāda—La-ilaha
illa-llāh wa Muḥammad rasul li-llāh—"There is no god but God,
and Muhammad is the Messenger of God".
Suzan Al-Mutawa
(1) The Calligraphy of Islām. Reflections on the Art, Mohamed
U. Zakariya
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