The Historical Origins and Paleographic Development of the Kufic Script
To explore the history of the Kufic script is not merely to trace the formal evolution of a writing style. It also raises critical questions of historiography and epistemology. The origins of writing, its transformations, the contexts of its use, and the aesthetic choices it entails are shaped not only by material evidence but also by historical assumptions, intellectual frameworks, and interpretive narratives.
The historical origins of the Kufic script are not limited to the linear evolution of the Arabic script; they also reflect a broader cultural, political, and theological transformation. The development of Kufic writing corresponds with a rapidly evolving epistemological and aesthetic quest in the wake of Islam’s emergence. As a script, Kufic embodies the early Muslim community’s dual concern: preserving the Qur’anic revelation with precision and imparting to it a form of solemnity and visual dignity.
Because I do not wish to write a large book volume about the Paleography of Arabic script like many orientalists have done before me, I will only mention here some good sources -which could be easily reachable on the internet- about the history of “arabic people, arabic inscriptions, arabic script and kufic scripture etc.
I will give here some examples from the nabatean script and some other arabic inscriptions discovered by archeologists. There are some websites on internet which shows all the arabic inscriptions and scripts including new archeological discoveries, such as:
Digital archive for the study of pre islamic arabian inscriptions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Arabic_inscriptions
https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions
Nabatean script in ümmü’ l-cimal gravestone of
I do not wish to convey all the historical information to my reader which I have gathered from the books of orientalists and muslım sholars; rather, I wish to interperete some aspects of the kufic scripture which are related with those different perspectives whenever it seems to me imperative. This is why I have spoken about my epistemological standpoint about all the differing perspectives of different disciplines. For example, we have so many historical relics of arabic scripts as inscriptions, papyruses, manuscripts written on parshomen and later on coins minted by umayyads and buildings which includes inscriptions like the Rock of Dome which its is ornamented by kufic calligraphy. It seems that scholars can never agree about these issues: What is the origin of arabic people, arabic language, arabic script, and kufic script all seems dubious because of the many differing interpretations of historians. It seems to me so confusing that ı guess those paleographic and epigraphic studies about so many comparable data could only be analyzed by usıng artificial intelligence.
For now I will repeat What Wordsworth said once:
Enough of science and of art
Close up those barren leaves
Come forth and bring with you a hearth
That watches and receives.
In pre-Islamic Arab societies, writing was a limited skill practiced within narrow circles, primarily used for commercial contracts, epitaphs, and occasionally for recording poetry. With the revelation of the Qur’an, however, writing underwent a qualitative transformation. The need to preserve and disseminate the divine message necessitated the standardization and refinement of the script.
How could we watch and receive, and understand the meaning of the kufic calligraphy? What is the importance of kufic script and what is the aesthetical value of it? First of all there was not a developed arabic script in the age of Prophet whether it was coming from nabatean script, or lakhmids or influenced by syriac writing; it was surely a distant relative or perhaps the last descendant of the phoenician alhabet. That script was not an alphabet but an abcad (consonantal alphabet with no vowels) which has only 18 signs of letter to write 28 letters. Remaining letters would be written with the same sign which are differientated by some dots when the script developed enough to write arabic correctly later in the age of abdülmelik ibni mervan.
Kufi script was the oldest and most significant style of Arabic script, the most formative visual art of islam, so much so that, islamic civilization has become a civilization of scripture, a kufic calligraphy civilization. In christianity jesus considered as an incarnation of god, phrased sometimes as the son of god or Word of god. Likewise Kufi calligraphy was the incarnation of the Word of God (because qur’an itself considered Word of God being intermittently revealed by Gebrail, Qur’anic verses could be considered as if they are some verses from the heavenly guarded book of destiny, levh-i mahfuz.
From the first it was not an ordinary script but a holy sicrupture of mushaf(book), the sacred scripture of Qur’an; kufi itself came into existence and developed because of the Qur’an. Otherwise, it was an unpractical and undeveloped script perhaps rarely used by a few merchants. Arabic sources say there was only about 30 people in Mecca who knew writing and some of them have been employed by the prophet as scripts of revelation. In fact, arabs had a predominantly oral culture before Qur’an and did not like writing at all, they have only poetry as literature but it also is preferred to be transferred and recited by heart. Anyhow there was no arabic script developed enough for written books. Even Qur’an means recited aloud verses, it is not a book but qur’an, not compiled in the time of prophet and preferred to be recited by heart. I am not going into details of the discussions about how Qur’an became a suhuf (compiled surahs and verses of Qur’an between two cover likewise a book at the time of the first caliph ebubekir. But arabic script is not an alphabet, it is an Abcad; that is, it shows only consonants of the words and even though there are 28 consonants only 18 of the consonants has different sign symbols, remaining consonants would be shown by addition of different points later on, but even at the time of Osman there was no point either. At the time of Abdülmelik b. Mervan some points and signs of vowels added to these letters to make reading easier and correct.That is to say, if only there was some rudimentary arabic script used rarely at the time of prophet and there was not a developed arabic script at that time; that means, both arabic script and arabic language grammer owe their development to the goal of writing the Qur’an. Later on thıs script would be named kufic script.
Here is an example of inscription from the time of Muaviye which shows already angular and rectilinear character of kufi style, because it is only natural and easy to use straight lines to be engraved on the hard surface of a rock:
The translation of the inscription is:
- This dam [belongs] to servant of God Muʿāwiya,
- Commander of the believers. ʿAbdullāh b. Ṣakhr built it
- with the permission of Allāh, in the year fifty eight. O
- Allāh, pardon servant of God Muʿāwiya, c-
- Commander of the believers, and strengthen him, and make him victorious, and grant the
- Commander of the believers the enjoyment of it. ʿAmr b. Ḥabbab wrote [it].
Location
Near Ṭa’if in the Ḥijaz, Saudi Arabia.
Excerpted From the islamic-awareness.org
The name “Kufic” is derived from the city of Kūfa in Iraq—an important intellectual and political center during the early Islamic period. Yet the term denotes more than a geographic origin; it signifies a particular aesthetic discipline and scriptural tradition. Compared with the more cursive and rounded Ḥijāzī script used in the Arabian Peninsula, Kufic is characterized by angularity, symmetry, and a structurally rigorous order.
Here is the inscription which could be called as an example of kufic script because of its rectilinear and angular letters. But those caharacteristics come from the natural difficulty of engraving some letters on a hard surface of the rock. This is the easiest way to engrave an inscription on a rock. Because to engrave a cursive letters on a rock would be much harder.
If the only defining caharacter of kufic calligraphy is to be rectilinear and angular, then this inscription also seems to be an example of kufic script. The kufi is the general name of scripts which have rectilinear and angular shapes of letters and there was not any strict rule of proportion or any specific shaping style of any letter until the emergence of other calligraphic styles. Later calliigraphic letters somewhat resembles contemporary typography; that is, every letter would be written always in the same shape and proportion. In fact there is not any rule for kufic calligraphy except seeming more angular and rectilenear shape if compared to other cursive hand writings. Kufi was the general name of calligraphy for centuries until the emergence of other calligraphic styles at 11th century. In fact the name as “kufic calligraphy” also is a misnomer ascribed too many different kufi styles and to the city of Kûfe. I do not wish to repeat what is written about arabic paleography and calligraphy, though they might be important from the perspective of some scholarly investigations and debates but it seems to me useless to repeat them here all those dubious and confusing statemens. Scholars have given every different handwriting style a name making comparisons between the extant manuscripts; they speak about mekki, medeni, hicazi, basri, kufi etc. Supposedly kufi developed in kufe city and hence the misnomer kufi comes. Sure there is a majestiik geometrical style which is used to be called kufi as we can see written on the parshomen manuscripts of Qur’an which conveys the sacredness of the word of Allah within the awesome beauty of mystical kufic style; but how do you know that it is developed particularly in Kufe city? And what this misnomer name kufi designates anyway. There are many different styles of kufi in history; which one you mean by the name kufi ?
Sheila S. Blair suggests that “the name Kufic was introduced to Western scholarship by Jacob George Christian Adler(1756–1834)”.[5]5Blair, Sheila S. (2006). Islamic Calligraphy. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-7486-1212-3.
More interested reader can learn what is said about kufi calligraphy in old islamic sources by reading the first chapter of the book “İslam Kültür Mirasında Hat Sanatı ” written by Nihad M. Çetin, published by IRCICA. Some scholars say arabic script comes from Müsned/ himyeri, others say it comes from nabatean script still others speak about syriac influence. All these debates involve in a certain amount of guesswork. Same is the case with the misnomer “kufic”. They name some styles according to the supposed geographical centers they have been related; namely , mekki, medeni, hicazi, kufi etc. In fact these names designates only different hand-writing styles of the scripts. “Naming” should help for cognition and understanding, but it does not necessarily imply a concrete thing and becomes confusing sometimes. I think all of those confusing paleographic, epigraphic and calligraphic discuscussions would be transferred to an AI agent to analize them. Yet, it is used to be referred by the name kufi calligraphy altough this form of art does not include any strict rule of calligraphic measures if compared to the letters of the so-called “aklamı sitte” / “six kind of pen” which is developed later on at the 11th century.
Here is the description given about first manuscripts in the Fihrist (Index of Books) of the Baghdadi
bibliographer al‐Nadim, written in 987:
The first Arabic scripts were the Meccan and after that the Madinan, then the Basran, then the Kufan. As regards the Meccan and Madinan, there is in its [sic] alifs a bend to the right hand side and an elevation of the vertical strokes; and in its form, there is a slight inclination…
During the early Islamic period, the Arabic script was still in a relatively primitive state. It lacked diacritical marks (dots) to distinguish between similar letters and had no vowel markings. This made reading difficult, especially for non-native Arabic speakers as Islam spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula. The third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644-656 CE), commissioned the first official compilation of the Quran, establishing a standard text. This project necessitated improvements in the writing system to ensure accurate preservation of the sacred text. Under the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE), significant developments occurred: Introduction of Diacritical Marks: Abu al-Aswad al-Du’ali (d. 688 CE) is traditionally credited with introducing dots to distinguish between similar letters. Vowel Notation System: A system of colored dots was developed to indicate short vowels, which are not normally written in Arabic.Standardization: The script became more standardized as it was used for administrative purposes throughout the expanding Islamic empire.These innovations were crucial for preserving the correct recitation of the Quran and facilitating the spread of Arabic literacy among non-Arab converts to Islam.
The mention of inclined letters makes the reference to this primitive corpus unambiguous. But how widespread were the denominations “Meccan” and “Madinan” in al‐Nadim’s lifetime, and how long had they been in existence by then? Were they meant to encompass all of the earliest Qurʾanic scripts, or specific tendencies within them? Al‐Nadim does not elaborate on the subject or cite his sources. “(6)
Although the Qur’anic codices produced during the caliphate of ʿUthmān may not yet have been called “Kufic” in the strict sense, they represent a foundational stage in its development. These early codices were devoid of diacritical marks and vowel signs—a fact that, given Arabic’s polysemic nature, often resulted in interpretive ambiguities. This challenge prompted the gradual elaboration of a more precise writing system.
The Umayyad period witnessed the introduction of diacritical markings by Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī, followed by the work of al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad, who further developed the dotting system. These innovations significantly improved the clarity and functionality of the Arabic script, reinforcing the role of Kufic script in the preservation and transmission of the Qur’an.
By the 8th and 9th centuries, Kufic was no longer confined to Qur’anic manuscripts. It began to appear across various media—architecture, coinage, ceramics, textiles, and metalwork. This diversification indicates that Kufic had become both a functional script and a symbolic medium. It evolved into an aesthetic form that could be seen, touched, and integrated into space.
During the Abbasid period, the institutionalization of calligraphy as an art form played a decisive role in the maturation of Kufic script. Major cultural centers such as Baghdad, Kūfa, and Baṣra saw the emergence of scriptoria and schools dedicated to its development. Various regional and functional styles of Kufic began to emerge, including Eastern Kufic (mashriqī), Western Kufic (maghribī), Square Kufic (murabbaʿ), and ornamental Kufic, among others. Each variant reflects specific cultural and aesthetic evolutions of the script.
From a paleographic perspective, studying the transformation of Kufic script offers critical insights into the broader history of writing. Early Qur’anic manuscripts typically feature large letters and generous spacing between lines. Over time, the script became more compact, stylistically elaborate, and enriched with decorative elements. These changes reflect not only technical innovations but also shifts in aesthetic sensibilities, religious consciousness, and political symbolism.
In sum, Kufic script emerged from within the Arabic script tradition but soon transcended it, becoming a multi-layered cultural form that conveyed the sacred and aesthetic codes of Islamic civilization. Its paleographic evolution mirrors the broader transformation of Islamic societies—their values, modes of expression, and approaches to textuality. Thus, Kufic is not merely a relic of the past; it is one of the clearest indicators of how the written word has functioned historically as a bearer of faith, art, and identity.