Arabic Calligraphy: An Introduction

(detail of Sultan Ahmed Mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey)

Before getting into proper calligraphy, it is important to contextualize the Arabic Alphabet, to learn about its History and its evolution.

Today, scholars have a consensus about the origin of the Arabic language - it originated in the Nabatean alphabet, which itself was a very close descendant of Aramaic. The first dated inscription in Arabic is from 512, in the region of Syria, but other pre-Islamic inscriptions are really sparse, and rather deteriorated.

The use of the Arabic really gains momentum at the time of the prophet Muhammad, and later with the Arabic expansion. The dots used in the script were introduced by an Ummayad governor, Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf (661-714), but were only formally made part of the script around the 9th-10th centuries. From then on, the Arabic script has suffered little changes: mainly, new letters have been introduced in languages with sounds that didn't exist in Arabic, like Urdu or Persian.

The Arabic Alphabet consists of 28 letters - each letter, has an Initial, a Medial, a Final and a Separate form, which may seem complicated at first, but once you get started, you will see that it is rather intuitive. The most important thing to keep in mind, is that you need to practice. Even if you do it only 10 minutes a day, it is better then nothing. Soon enough, you will memorize each letter, and you will see how fluid the Arabic script is.

There are also a total of six vowels (three short: a, u and i; three long: aa, uu and ii) and two diphthongs: 'aw' and 'ay'. All of these have specific ways to be written, and I recommend that you read about this subject first (See my "Recommended Bibliography", at the end of this page!)

Already having second thoughts about this? You may not allow that to happen. Arabic is easy and intuitive, and although it may seem overwhelming at first, it isn't. Maybe a picture of what I, a complete amateur, have done will inspire you? If I can do it, so can you!

The image above shows the Surah al-'Isra', 17:15, taken from the Qu'ran. It shows all the vowels and other signs, something that is not very common in modern Arabic.

 Get everything ready. If you are using a Dip Pen, remember to keep the ink in the same side as the hand that you use for writing - in my case, it is the right side.

&nbsp For this practice exercise, we will start with a simple word: Asif ( أصف ), which means 'forgiveness'. The nib of your pen should be in a 45º angle, in order to achieve the best morphology of each letter.

Now, let us start by drawing the first letter:

The second and third letters will be done at the same time - they should be written in one, fluid movement:

Finally, we draw all the dots and other grammatical signs - in this case, I have included the vowel 'i', which is the little line below the letter 'Saad'.

Still have some doubts about how to write this word? Maybe this will help:

Congratulations! You have now written your first Arabic word: 'Asif ("forgiveness"). As you have seen for yourself, it is not hard. Arabic is indeed very fluid and cursive, making it quite easy to write. Now, you can try with other words that you like, or even names! The limit is your creativity! Be sure to check my 'Recommended Bibliography' if you are interested in doing more of this!

Good luck! ;-)