Beautiful Calligraphy

Of the Islamic World

Persian Calligraphy Cards of three very important words _gift from a friend, photo by author

Recently, I received a gift from my friend, three little cards of three very important letters, guess what they are?

The words on it were printed in one of the most beautiful calligraphy in the world, Persian Calligraphy (khat-e-Mikhi / script of Nails); and it reminds me of another one, the Islamic Calligraphy (khatt ul-yad), the ribbon shape geometry that is quite similar to this one.

I’m not familiar with the differences between both but as far as I know, due to the Islamic religious, idea of restriction to idolizing animals & human beings, all the visual arts and even words are abstract forms of ornate beauty, with different kinds of geometrical patterns, such as circular, rectangular & hexagonal shapes. (No signature on all forms as well.)

But no matter it’s Persian or Islamic calligraphy, the words are just so well & harmonized when designing, forming a unique visual art like no other. Maybe that’s what their calligrapher would like to achieve, aesthetic balance!

And you may already heard there is a famous ‘Blue Mosque’ (official name Sultan Ahmed Mosque) built between 1609–1617 in Istanbul; the interior is full of floral motifs (& Qur’an verses), especially where the Northern gallery consists of thousands of Iznik tiles painted with floral motifs in blue; the…