Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute Of

Technology,
S.M.C.H.S Campus

Project: Khat-E-Naskh
Course: Arabic Language
Term: Fall 2018, Class: BBA - 1

Submitted By:
Abdul Aziz Simjee – 14607
Ali Abbas - 14449
Saifullah - 14692
Muslim - 14475
Saad Ali - 14444
Ghazi Azeemuddin - 14455
Yousuf Khalique - 14693

Submitted To:
Sir M. Shah Bukhari
History of Khat e Naskh:
Along with materials and equipment, participants will discover the discipline and
culture in the craft of Naskh calligraphy. This extensive program enables
participants to be engaged in a much focused and enriching flow and attain an
extensive exposure of experiencing the classical Naskh script.
The Naskh script is the fundamental to all other forms of cursive Arabic scripts.  It
is one of the prime classical master-script, and also the foundation for 6 classical
master pens.
For about 300 years, the majestic Kufi script has been dominating the transcription
of the Holy Quran, as the official Mushaf script. Thence, Naskh script took over
and its styles has been the dominating script to this date.
Naskh, which means: transcribing, evolved in Baghdad, which was the
early capital of Islam and center of Arab. The foundation of Naskh script can
be traced back to as early as 750 A.D or even earlier.

Naskh (script):

Naskh (literally "to copy") is a smaller, round script of Islamic Calligraphy. Naskh

is one of the first scripts of Islamic calligraphy to develop, commonly used in
writing administrative documents and for transcribing books, including the Qur’an,
because of its easy legibility. Naskh was standardized by Ibn Muqla as one of the
six primary scripts of Islamic calligraphy in the 10th century CE.

Origin:

Round scripts became the most popular in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, due to their use by scribes.
Ibn Muqla is credited with standardizing the “Six Pens” of Islamic calligraphy,
also including thuluth, tawqi’, ruq'ah, muhaqqaq, and reyhan. These are known as
“the proportioned scripts” (al-khatt al-mansub) or “the six scripts” (al-aqlam al-
sitta).
Kufic is commonly believed to be predate Naskh, but historians have traced the
two scripts as coexisting long before their codification by Ibn Muqla, as the two
served different purposes. This was possible because the scripts serve different
purposes: kufic was used primarily in decoration, while Naskh served for everyday
scribal use.

Description:

Naskh is a serifless script, meaning characters lack “hooks” on the ends of

ascending and descending strokes. For example, the alif is written as a straight
stroke, bending to the lower left. Naskh differentiates various sounds through the
use of diacritical points, in the form of 1-3 dots above or below the letter, which
makes the script more easily legible. Naskh uses a horizontal base line; in
situations where one character starts within the tail of the preceding letter, the base
line is broken and raised. In sixteenth century Constantinople, Şeyh
Hamdullah (1429–1520) redesigned the structure of naskh, along with the other
"Six Pens," in order to make the script appear more precise and less heavy.

Use:

Naskh was historically used heavily in the transcription of books and in

administrative courtly documents.
Naskh allowed for the development of decorative elements into more supple,
rounded designs, away from the common use of squared kufic in decoration.
Naskh's use in architecture first began in the tenth century and had been adopted in
many Muslim countries by the eleventh century.
More recently, fonts, such as Monotype Imaging's Bustani font, have created user-
friendly digital manifestations of naskh for use in graphic design and digital
typography.

Variety of Naskh:

1. Thuluth was developed during the 10th century and later refined by

Ahmad Tayyib Shah. Letters in this script have long vertical lines with
broad spacing. The name, meaning "third," is in reference to the x-height,
which is one-third of the 'alif.
 2. Riq'ah is a handwriting style derived from Naskh and thuluth, first
appeared in the 10th century. The shape is simple with short strokes and
small flourishes.

3. Muhaqqaq is a majestic style used by accomplished calligraphers. It

was considered one of the most beautiful scripts, as well as one of the most
difficult to execute. Muhaqqaq was commonly used during the Mamluk era,
but its use became largely restricted to short phrases, such as the basmallah,
from the 18th century onward.

Regional styles:

Nasta'liq calligraphy by Mir Emad Hassani, perhaps the most celebrated Persian
calligrapher.
With the spread of Islam, the Arabic script was established in a vast geographic
area with many regions developing their own unique style. From the 14th century
onward, other cursive styles began to develop in Turkey, Persia, and China.

1. Nasta'liq is a cursive style originally devised to write the Persian

language for literary and non-Qur'anic works. Nasta'liq is thought to be a
later development of the naskh and the earlier ta'liq script used in Iran. The
name ta'liq means "hanging," and refers to the slightly sloped quality of
lines of text in this script. Letters have short vertical strokes with broad and
sweeping horizontal strokes. The shapes are deep, hook-like, and have high
contrast. A variant called Shikasteh is used in more informal contexts.

2. Diwani is a cursive style of Arabic calligraphy developed during the

reign of the early Ottoman Turks in the 16th and early 17th centuries. It was
invented by Housam Roumi, and reached its height of popularity
under Süleyman, I the Magnificent (1520–1566). Spaces between letters are
often narrow, and lines ascend upwards from right to left. Larger variations
called djali are filled with dense decorations of dots and diacritical marks in
the space between, giving it a compact appearance. Diwani is difficult to
read and write due to its heavy stylization and became the ideal script for
writing court documents as it ensured confidentiality and prevented forgery.

3. Sini is a style developed in China. The shape is greatly influenced

by Chinese calligraphy, using a horsehair brush instead of the standard reed
pen. A famous modern calligrapher in this tradition is Hajji Noor Deen Mi
Guangjiang.

Modern Use of Naskh:

In the post-colonial era, artists working in North Africa and the Middle East
transformed Arabic calligraphy into a modern art movement, known as
the Hurufiyya movement. Artists working in this style use calligraphy as a graphic
element within contemporary artwork.
The term, hurifiyya is derived from the Arabic term, harf for letter. Traditionally,
the term was charged with Sufi intellectual and esoteric meaning. It is an explicit
reference to a Medieval system of teaching involving political theology and
lettrism. In this theology, letters were seen as primordial signifiers and
manipulators of the cosmos.
Hurufiyya artists blended Western art concepts with an artistic identity and
sensibility drawn from their own culture and heritage. These artists integrated
Islamic visual traditions, especially calligraphy, and elements of modern art into
syncretic contemporary compositions. Although hurufiyyah artists struggled to find
their own individual dialogue within the context of nationalism, they also worked
towards an aesthetic that transcended national boundaries and represented a
broader affiliation with an Islamic identity.
The hurufiyya artistic style as a movement most likely began in North Africa
around 1955 with the work of Ibrahim el-Salahi. However, the use of calligraphy
in modern artworks appears to have emerged independently in various Islamic
states. Artists working in this were often unaware of other hurufiyya artists's
works, allowing for different manifestations of the style to emerge in different
regions. In Sudan, for instance, artworks include both Islamic calligraphy and West
African motifs.
The Roof of Frere Hall, Karachi, Pakistan, 1986. Mural by artist, Sadequain
Naqqash integrates calligraphy elements into a modern artwork.
The hurufiyya art movement was not confined to painters and included artists
working in a variety of media. One example is the Jordanian ceramicist, Mahmoud
Taha who combined the traditional aesthetics of calligraphy with skilled
craftsmanship. Although not affiliated with the hurufiyya movement, the
contemporary artist Shirin Neshat integrates Arabic text into her black-and-white
photography, creating contrast and duality. In Iraq, the movement was known as Al
Bu'd al Wahad (or the One Dimension Group)", and in Iran, it was known as
the Saqqa-Khaneh movement.
Western art has influenced Arabic calligraphy in other ways, with forms such
as calligraffiti, which is the use of calligraphy in public art to make politico-social
messages or to ornament public buildings and spaces. Notable Islamic calligraffiti
artists include: Yazan Halwani active in Lebanon, El Seed working in France and
Tunisia, and Caiand a1one in Tehran.
How to Write Khat e Naskh:
• PEN-CRAFTING:
• BASIC LETTERS:
• COMBINED LETTERS: