Calligraphy Hands
If you're interested in calligraphy first you will need paper, a pen and ink.
O you, who wish to become a calligrapher
And to be a friend and companion to men,
Make the realm of writing your abode,
And contain a world under your name!
…
Purity of writing proceeds from purity of heart.
Writing is the distinction of the pure.
-Qadi Ahbad ibn Mir-Munshi circa 1606 AD
One of the highest art forms in Islamic tradition, Arabic calligraphy is written from right to left (as opposed to English which goes from left to right). It is also a cursive script in that letter forms usually join to neighboring letters.
“My enchantress writes in six styles, without any trouble:
Thuluth, rayhan, muhaqqaq, naskh, tauqi, and riqa.”
While our friend Qadi Ahmad lists 6 major hands (not counting the Kufic) there are many others. I chose the samples below as some of the most common seen in medieval manuscripts. One of the most important differences between hands is the porportion of the shorter letters to the tallest.
| Name | Sample | Notes |
| Riqa | The simplest hand; used for single letters all alone, this is the most similar to modern typed Arabic | |
| Kufic |   |
An early script, Kufic is characterized by very tall, stiff letters and is used for formal decorative writing up to the modern era. It is the style most frequently used in architecture. The top sample is from an early manuscript (10th century?), the lower is from the 14th century. Manuscripts will frequently have Kufic letters for important words that are incorporated into decoration (as in the second example pictured which is from a manuscript that otherwise is written in the Nashki script). |
| Muhaqqaq |  |
Bottom-heavy curves, this example is from a formal text dated to the early 14th century in the Met. |
| Thuluth |  |
An earlier cursive style, Thuluth is used throughout period for formal writings (less formal than Kufic) Visually Thuluth has a lot of tall angles and proportioning similar to Kufic. This example is dated to the 15th century. |
| Nashki |  |
Very similar to Thuluth with fewer angles, Nashki was a formal script. The picture left is dated to the 14th century. |
| Taliq and Nastaliq | 
 |
The “hanging script” Taliq features shorter 'tall' letters and wide sweeps for the long letters. This is the most popular script used for non-religious manuscripts in Persia after the 14th century. The top, straight example is from a Rylands library manuscript. Looking at the lower, slanted example (from the Freer Sackler Gallery), it is not surpising that it's name is the root of our modern word 'Italic' |
An on-line animated web page which shows the drawing of each letter of the Arabic alphabet in the riqa script is at: http://www.islamicart.com/main/calligraphy/catalog/alphabet.html