kufi chapter two

Chapter II

a. On Historical Origins of Arabic Script and Historical Development of Kufi Calligraphy

When I first decided to write about my philosophy of history and my Kufi calligraphy and  Kufic scripture in general, I thought this was a new opportunity to convey all my ideas more clearly within the illuminating light of Kufic script. So, in the preceding chapter, I have already spoken enough about the problematic aspects of human knowledge and outlined my ideas and evaluations as a prologue to the meaning of kufi  calligraphy. Now it is time to tell the story of kufi calligraphy.

Naturally, I’ve already read many well-written books on the paleography and epigraphy of Arabic script by famous Orientalists. Of course, I’ve also read many books, even some manuscripts, by Arab, Persian, or Turkish writers. However, I don’t believe it’s necessary to repeat all the knowledge I’ve learned from those books—all the known and unknown and problematic aspects of the subject. Instead, I’ll offer my interpretations whenever it seems proper to me. Nevertheless, this essay will  include a large bibliography for the more interested reader who wishes to learn more.

Let us recall some historical knowledge about the Arab people and the Qur’an: According to the Muslim religion, the Qur’an is the word of Allah revealed by the archangel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad. According to the traditional geneology prophet Muhammed`s ancestors descended from Abraham`sson ishmael. And Arab people also are divided into two groups: Adnani (northern Arabs considered Arab i-musta`ribe—that is, “Arabized Arabs” descended from Ishmael)—and Qahtani (southern Arabs, like the Yemenis).This is why the Arabs are called ‘The sons of Ishmael’ by the Jews. According to the Old Testamen, Abraham and Hagar’s son Ishmael had ten children. The names of Ishmael’s first and second sons given by the Old Testament seemed interestingly historical to me referring Nabatian and Kedar kingdoms. Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar.   `Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. 13 And these were the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 [a]Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and their [b]settlements, twelve princes according to their nations.` *1.  Kedar is the Father of the Qedarites, a northern Arab tribe that controlled the area between the Persian Gulf and the Sinai Peninsula. According to tradition, he is the ancestor of the Quraysh tribe, and thus, ancestor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.^*2   According to Old Testament Nebaioth  was the Father of Nabataean people and according to paleographic and epigraphic investigations by Orientalists, the most widely held guess among them is that Arabic script originated from the Nabataean script.

Indeed, the history of Kufi script again clearly exemplifies the dubious nature of historical knowledge. The origin of Arabic script can not be proven or definitely known  at all. There are many different predictions  of Orientalists about origins of Arabic script based on various relics and inscriptions.

I think the aforementioned short remarks about my own epistemological reasoning are sufficient to demonstrate my standpoint regarding the dubious nature of historical, theological, mystical, semantic, and artistic aspects of  human knowledge in general. Again, I am adding some of my articles about my philosophy of history as annexes, so that, I can express my ideas about history in a larger context than  this context which is primarily about kufi calligraphy. Though Bacos says `writing makes an exact man`*3.   , I think  every word is incomplete as it is said in Ecclesiastes II-8: “All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing.” *4

For instance, the origins of the Arabic script have been a subject of scholarly debate for centuries. There are two main theories about its origins: the Nabataean Theory and the Musnad Theory.

For example, Irvin Cemil Schick states: `The old and generally dominant view is that Arabic script was derived from Nabataean script; however, the chronological gap between the Nabataean and Arab civilizations necessitates a reexamination of this view. In more recent times, an alternative theory has been proposed suggesting that Arabic script originated from Aramaic/Syriac script. The former view has found support in Anglo-Saxon academic circles, while the latter has been favored in French scholarly environments. It would be highly appropriate for these theories to be discussed in Turkey as well. Yet, this issue—pertaining to the pre-Ottoman Turkish era—has remained off the agenda to this day, like many other “foreign” topics. Only legendary accounts, rather than historical evidence, have appeared in Turkish sources—stories passed down from generation to generation claiming that writing was invented by Prophet Adam or Prophet Idris, and that the first calligrapher was Imam Ali. ` *5

The most widely accepted theory is that the Arabic alphabet evolved from the Nabataean script, which itself was derived from the Aramaic alphabet. This evolution followed this path:

Phoenician alphabet → Aramaic alphabet → Nabataean Aramaic → Nabataean Arabic → Paleo-Arabic → Classical Arabic → Modern Standard Arabic  

* 6 .wikipedia,

*7

The Nabataean script was used by the Nabataean Kingdom, centered in Petra (in modern-day Jordan) from around the 3rd century BCE. The Nabataeans were predominantly Arab Semitic tribes living in the area, controlling trade routes from the eastern Mediterranean shores to Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and Yemen. A transitional phase between the Nabataean Aramaic script and a subsequent, recognizably Arabic script, is known as Nabataean Arabic. The pre-Islamic phase of the script as it existed in the fifth and sixth centuries CE, once it had become recognizably similar to the script as it came to be known in the Islamic era, is known as Paleo-Arabic.

An alternative Musnad Theory suggests that the Arabic script can be traced back to Ancient North Arabian scripts, which are derived from the ancient South Arabian script (Arabic: khaṭṭ al-musnad).

*8

`This hypothesis has been discussed by Arabic scholars Ibn Jinni and Ibn Khaldun. Some scholars, like Ahmed Sharaf Al-Din, have argued that the relationship between the Arabic alphabet and the Nabataeans is only due to the influence of the later after its emergence (from Ancient South Arabian script). Arabic has a one-to-one correspondence with ancient South Arabian script except for one letter. German historian Max Muller (1823-1900) thought the Phoenician script was adapted from Musnad during the 9th century BCE when the Minaean Kingdom of Yemen controlled areas of the Eastern Mediterranean shores. Syrian scholar Shakīb ´Arslan shares this view. *9

Thus, 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.

That is, 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 are easily reachable on the internet—about the history of “Arabic people, Arabic inscriptions, Arabic script, and Kufic scripture, etc.” *6.

One can find many examples from the Nabataean script and other Arabic inscriptions discovered by archaeologists on internet sites. There are some websites on the internet that show all the Arabic inscriptions and scripts, including new archaeological discoveries, such as:

• Digital archive for the study of pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions: https://dasi.cnr.it/
• History of the Arabic alphabet – Wikipedia
• https://corpuscoranicum.de/en
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Arabic_inscriptions
• https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions

Rather than conveying all the historical information I’ve gathered from the books of Orientalists and Muslim scholars, I wish to interpret certain aspects of Kufic scripture as they relate to various differing perspectives, whenever it seems imperative to do so. This is precisely why I have already articulated my epistemological standpoint concerning the myriad viewpoints across different disciplines. For instance, we possess numerous historical relics of Arabic scripts—inscriptions, papyri, manuscripts written on parchment, and later, coins minted by Umayyads, as well as buildings like the Dome of the Rock, which is ornamented with Kufic calligraphy.

Kufi calligraphy from  The Dome of the Rock, one of the the oldest Islamic buildings, was constructed under the auspices of Umayyad ruler Adb al-Malikin 692.  *10… Monuments · The Kufic Script: Form Follows Function · CB 51 Omeka

It seems scholars can never fully agree on these matters: the origin of the Arabic people, Arabic language, Arabic script, and Kufic script all appear dubious because of the many divergent interpretations offered by historians.  I think these paleographic and epigraphic studies, with their vast amounts of comparable data, should be analyzed by an artificial intelligence. I will not reiterate all the perplexing details of those paleographic investigations; nevertheless, I will provide a bibliography for curious readers, and many useful websites contain all those specific details.

For now, I recall what Wordsworth once said:

Enough of science and of art

Close up those barren leaves

Come forth and bring with you a hearth

That watches and receives. *11

1. Kufic Script: The Incarnation of the Word

How, then, can we “watch and receive,” and truly comprehend the meaning of Kufi calligraphy? First of all, in pre-Islamic Arab societies, writing was a limited skill, primarily practiced within narrow circles. It was used mainly for commercial contracts, epitaphs, and occasionally for recording poetry. With the revelation of the Qur’an, however, writing underwent a qualitative transformation. Soon after the death of prophet, the imperative to preserve and disseminate the divine message necessitated the standardization and refinement of the script.

Why Kufi calligraphy is so important and what is its aesthetic value? First and foremost, there was no developed Arabic script during the Prophet’s era, whether its origins lay in Nabataean script, Lakhmid script, or Syriac influence. It was certainly a distant relative, perhaps the last descendant, of the Phoenician alphabet. That script was not a full alphabet but an abjad. This means it primarily indicates only the consonants of words. Moreover, even with 28 consonants, only 18 had distinct sign symbols. The remaining consonants would later be indicated by the addition of different points, but even during the time of Uthman, these points were absent. The remaining letters were written with the same signs, later in Umayyad Era these same looking letters differentiated by the addition of dots.   So, the script evolved sufficiently to write Arabic only during the era of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.  *12

*13. A_Handbook_of_Early_Arabic_Kufic_Script (1).pdf

Yet Kufic script stands as the oldest and most significant style of Arabic script, indeed the most formative visual art of Islam. So profound was its influence that Islamic civilization itself became a civilization of scripture, a Kufic calligraphy civilization. In Christianity, Jesus is regarded as an incarnation of God, sometimes phrased as the Son of God or the Word of God. Similarly, Kufic calligraphy can be seen as the incarnation of the Word of God. This is because the Qur’an itself is considered the Word of God, intermittently revealed by Gabriel, and thus, Qur’anic verses could be regarded as excerpts from the heavenly guarded book of destiny, the Levh-i Mahfuz.

Qur`an as the rock inscription

From its inception, it was not merely an ordinary script but a holy scripture of the mushaf (book), the sacred text of the Qur’an. Kufic calligraphy itself emerged and developed specifically because of the Qur’an. Arabic sources indicate that only about 30 individuals in Mecca possessed writing skills, and some of them were indeed employed by the Prophet as scribes of revelation. In fact, Arabs had a predominantly oral culture before the Qur’an and did not favor writing extensively; their literature consisted primarily of poetry, which was also preferred to be memorized and recited by heart. Consequently, no sufficiently developed Arabic script existed at that time. Even the word “Qur’an” itself means “recited aloud verses”; it refers not to a physical book but to a recitation, not yet compiled during the Prophet’s time, and primarily conveyed through memorization. I will not delve into the detailed discussions about how the Qur’an was eventually compiled into a suhuf (collected surahs and verses between two covers, resembling a book) during the time of the first Caliph Abu Bakr.

14. Art of Qur`an

It was during the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan that some points and vowel signs were added to these letters to facilitate easier and more accurate reading. Therefore, if only a rudimentary Arabic script was rarely used during the Prophet’s time, and a fully developed Arabic script did not exist then, it implies that both the Arabic script and Arabic language grammar owe their development significantly to the imperative of writing the Qur’an. Subsequently, this script would come to be known as Kufic script.

*15. Was a woman the first editor of the Qur’an? – Medievalists.net

1.Early Kufic Characteristics and the “Misnomer” Debate

The name “Kufic script” is derived from the city of Kūfa in Iraq—an important intellectual and political center during the early Islamic period. In fact, it is a misnomer because the term denotes more than a mere geographic origin, because it signifies a particular aesthetic discipline and a rich scriptural tradition.  In essence, the term “Kufi calligraphy” is a misnomer, attributed to numerous distinct Kufi styles and to the city of Kūfa itself. Compared with the more cursive and rounded Ḥijāzī script used in the Arabian Peninsula, Kufi is distinguished by its angularity, symmetry, and a structurally rigorous order.

That is Kufi was the general designation for scripts featuring rectilinear and angular letter shapes, and there were no strict rules of proportion or any specific shaping style for individual letters until the emergence of other calligraphic styles. Later calligraphic letters somewhat resemble contemporary typography, where every letter is written in precisely the same shape and proportion each time it recurs. There is no such rigid rule for Kufi calligraphy, apart from its generally more angular and rectilinear appearance when compared to other cursive handwritings. Kufi served as the general name for calligraphy for centuries until the advent of other calligraphic styles around the 11th century. I do not wish to reiterate all that has been written by orientalists about Arabic paleography and calligraphy; while such details might be important from the perspective of specialized scholarly investigations or debates, it seems unproductive to repeat all those dubious and confusing statements here. Scholars have assigned names to every different handwriting style by comparing extant manuscripts, referring to them as Mekki, Medeni, Hicazi, Basri, Kufi, etc.

Supposedly, Kufi developed in Kufa city, hence the misnomer. Certainly, there is a majestic geometrical style commonly referred to as Kufi, as seen in the parchment manuscripts of the Qur’an, which conveys the sacredness of the word of Allah within the awesome beauty of its mystical style. But how can we definitively know that it developed particularly in Kufa City? And what exactly does this misnomer “Kufi” signify anyway? History reveals many different styles of Kufi; which one is specifically meant by the name “Kufi”?

Sheila S. Blair, who suggests that the term “Kufic” was introduced to Western scholarship by Jacob George Christian Adler (1756–1834). The name implies that the script originated in Kufa, Iraq, but this attribution is considered misleading by some experts, While the script is named after Kufa, it was used widely across the Islamic world, not just in that city. *16. Sheila

Nabia Abbott reasserts: `The earliest Muslim inscription, the tombstone of ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khair al-Hajari, dated 31/652… It is certainly not Makkan and can safely be considered as poor Kufic.` *17

A more interested reader can delve into what ancient Islamic sources say about Kufi calligraphy by reading the first chapter of the book “İslam Kültür Mirasında Hat Sanatı” (The Art of Calligraphy in Islamic Cultural Heritage), written by Nihad M. Çetin and published by IRCICA. *18.

For example’ Nabia Abbott says: `…Kufah and Basrah did not start their careers as Muslim cities until the second decade of Islam. But these cities were located closer to Anbar and Hirah in Irak, Kufah being but a few miles south of Hirah. We have already seen the major role the two earlier cities played in the evolution of Arabic writing, and it is but natural to expect them to have developed a characteristic script to which the newer cities of Kufah and Basrah fell heir, so that for Kufic and Basran script one is tempted to substitute Anbaran and Hiran … our study so far shows that the script of Hirah must have been the leading script in the 6th century and as such must have influenced all later scripts, including the Makkan – Madinan.` *19

Some scholars propose Arabic script originated from Musnad/Himyarī, others from Nabataean script, while still others discuss Syriac influence. All these debates involve a certain amount of guesswork. The same applies to the misnomer “Kufic.” Scholars categorize some styles based on their supposed geographical centers, naming them Mekki, Medeni, Hicazi, Kufi, etc. In reality, these names merely designate different handwriting styles of the scripts. While “naming” should aid cognition and understanding, it does not necessarily imply an absolute reality and can sometimes lead to confusion as I have already stated in chapter one.

I think all these perplexing paleographic, epigraphic, and calligraphic discussions would be best transferred to an AI agent for analysis. Nevertheless, this art form continues to be referred to by the name Kufi calligraphy, even though it does not adhere to any strict rules of calligraphic measures when compared to the letters of the so-called “Aklam-ı Sitte” / “Six Kinds of Pen,” which developed later in the 11th century.

Here is a description provided about the first manuscripts in the Fihrist (Index of Books) by 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 righthand side and an elevation of the vertical strokes; and in its form, there is a slight inclination…” *20

The “Qur’an Of Uthman” At The Al-Hussein Mosque, Cairo, Egypt, From 1st / 2nd Century Hijra

Muḥammad Bakhit considers it to be one of ʿUthmāni muṣḥaf. Labīb al-Saʿīd opines that it may be the muṣḥaf sent to Madinah or Syria. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Zurqānī, author of Manāhil al-ʿIrfan, considers it to be a copy of one of the ʿUthmāni muṣḥaf. On the other hand, palaeographer Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Munajjid did not consider this manuscript to be from the time of caliph ʿUthmān.^[4] His says that, in all probability, it was a copy made on the order of the Governor of Egypt ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān, brother of Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. Therefore, it can be said that this is one of the oldest copies of the Qur’an written in Egypt in the second half of 1st century hijra. This dating is also endorsed by Dr. Altikulaç, the editor of the facsimile edition, as well as others.^[5] Finally, Dr. Suʿād Maher, who examined this Qur’an, believes that it is not one of the Qur’ans sent by the third caliph ʿUthmān to various regions of the Islamic Empire.^[6]

Home – مصحف مشهد رضوی – Codex Mashhad

T. Altikulaç, Hz. Osman’a Nisbet Edilen Mushaf– I Şerîf (Kahire El-Meşhedü’l-Hüseynî Nüshası), 2009, Volume I,

S. al-Munajjid, Dirāsāt fī Tārīkh al-Khatt al-ʿArabī Mundhu Bidayatihi ilā Nihayat al-ʿAsr al-Umawi (French Title: Etudes De Paleographie Arabe), 1972

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The Qur’anic Manuscripts In Museums, Institutes, Libraries & Collections