calligraphy

May 11, 2009 8:05 PM

Calligraphy QalamAn introduction to Arabic, Ottoman and Persian Calligraphy. See a gallery, a timeline of scripts and styles, a blog with entries such as how to design your own square kufic calligraphy, and much more.
posted by dhruva (8 comments total)

If only my signature were as badass as the Ottoman tughra! (examples from the linked site here, here, and here. More at the Wikipedia article, which features this seriously excellent illustration.)

This is great, thanks!
posted by chomputer at 9:44 PM on May 11

Beautiful, thank dhruva. That last gif link is excellent, yeah.
posted by peacay at 10:47 PM on May 11

Geez, thanks a lot, dhruva. I'm still trying to cross my "t"s without ripping the paper, and you have to hit me with this artistic calligraphy shit. Jerk.

Seriously, though, this kind of thing makes me wish I could draw a straight line without a ruler and three highly-trained helpers.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 4:22 AM on May 12

Something you may not have ordinarily come across, that you might like.
posted by tellurian at 5:33 AM on May 12

That's terrific, tellurian—thanks!
posted by languagehat at 6:22 AM on May 12

Cheers for this link. I'm learning Arabic at the moment and all of corridors in my school are adorned with this kind of thing. It's surprisingly difficult to read some of them, and at least now I can refer to the different types of caligraphy by their proper names.
posted by Biru at 10:29 AM on May 12

مخطوطات مختارة
posted by peacay at 9:20 PM on May 12

I can't imagine learning arabic, but that link is magic peacay.
posted by tellurian at 7:24 AM on May 14