Islamic calligraphy.(Report from Europe)(Brief article)

The Islamic devotion to calligraphy stems in part from the frequent references to writing in the Koran and the practice of making manuscript copies of the sacred book. The copyists approached their task with reverence and great attention to detail.

Over the centuries a number of Islamic calligraphic styles emerged and evolved for both historical and technological reasons. The rise and fall of rulers led to the inevitable shift in centers of power. From the eighth to the tenth centuries, Kufic calligraphy--named after the city of Kufa in present-day Iraq--dominated, but by the time of Mughal rule, the script had changed considerably. Technology played its part with the introduction of paper, which replaced vellum in the eleventh century, except in North Africa and Spain, where artists retained conservative traditions until well into the thirteenth century. By the fifteenth and ...