July 26, 2002

12:07 AM

It can be stately and elegant, beautiful and swirling or square and modern. It makes a surprising variety of intricate pictures. Why is the written word honored so highly in Islamic art? Find out by diving into the gorgeous world of Arab Calligraphy. Here's a friendly portal to help. Take time to linger over a language that took a different path. (Bonus for font freaks inside)
posted by mediareport (10 comments total)

(Can we ban Pantload and ParisPariah from this thread preemptively?)
posted by donkeyschlong at 12:24 AM on July 26, 2002

Bonus for Font freaks:
Ayesha's amazing animated Arabic alphabet (Flash req'd).
Also:
Four pages of old school Islamic calligraphy
More contemporary approach from the director of London's Research Centre for Arab Art and Design, Ahmed Moustafa
posted by mediareport at 12:26 AM on July 26, 2002 [1 favorite]

an awesome array of links to behold, mediareport. good work. :)
posted by elphTeq at 1:52 AM on July 26, 2002

This is very cool. Thanks.
posted by Bixby23 at 2:43 AM on July 26, 2002

mediareport, you have singlehandely thrown me back to a time when I was 7 years old and I was transfixed by a turkish student friend of my parent's, writing my name for me in arabic script. Throughout the time he stayed with us, he taught me much of the alphabet too. I just worked my way through Ayesha's animated alphabet and was surprised at just how many of the glyphs and sounds I remembered. Cheers mediareport, I'll be smiling alot today! :-)
posted by Arqa at 3:27 AM on July 26, 2002

Wow. Great links. Thanks.
posted by ColdChef at 6:23 AM on July 26, 2002

i ? mediareport
posted by Marquis at 6:43 AM on July 26, 2002

Wow, very cool. Very beautiful, too. Thank you!
posted by beth at 7:56 AM on July 26, 2002

Too groovy. I've been working on learning formal Arabic, and the writing has always been the hardest part...this is stunning! Great links, you rock. :)
posted by dejah420 at 8:52 AM on July 26, 2002

Thank the idiocy of that lawsuit against UNC, which inspired me to go digging. I've liked looking at Arabic (not Arab, as I wrote above) calligraphy for years but never knew much about it.

I love this one. And the origin and development links are really fascinating.
posted by mediareport at 11:13 AM on July 26, 2002