Beauty-Writing (Callos-Graphia)
“Handwriting is jewelry fashioned by the hand from the pure gold of the intellect.” - treatise on the penmanship of Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, 9th century.
The diacritical marks indicate vowels (the alphabet has consonants only). The text is always cursive and has no upper or lower case (although shape variants are used in the beginning, middle or end of a word). Proportions are determined by a pen-stroke dot “grid” system within a circle.
How the Arabic letter “teh” is written: in its positions, and with its “isolated” proportion guides.
Chat with a Lampstand
Lampstand, Iran, 1578-79, gallery 462
Inscriptions are often verses of conversations. This lampstand “speaks” to its owner/viewer in a dialog of flame.
“I remember one night as my eyes wouldn’t sleep
I heard a moth speaking with a candle
Said the moth: Because I am a lover it is right that I should burn
[But] why should you weep and burn yourself up?”
Planning, Truth and Happiness
"Planning before work protects you from regret; prosperity and peace.”
“It seems worthless to me, even after all the terrible things we have had to go through, if we writers do not tell each other the truth.”
"To its owner happiness, security and life as long as a dove coos.”
The bowl with Arabic inscription (top left) has an abstract, almost contemporary, minimalist design, inscribed with a proverb on planning. It is stunning. Iran, 10th c., gallery 450.
The plate (top right) 2007, is from the Oskarmaria Brasserie inside Literaturhaus Munich, the cultural institute promoting education and literary events. After the salmon was enjoyed, a writer at our table discovered the phrase on writers and truth on the plate. At the end of the meal, a German colleague went to the kitchen and returned with the plate in a brown paper bag. She forced it from the hands of the staff. The Brasserie’s namesake, Oskar Maria Graf, was a German writer who, when the Nazis did not have his books on the Munich book-burning list, published an article entitled “Burn Me”. He got on the list.
The pen box (Qalamdan) (bottom) sends praise to the “owner”, fashioned from brass and inlaid with silver and gold. Iran, 16th century, gallery 462. May there always be cooing . . .
Amulets and Talismans
This shirt was believed to be imbued with protective powers and may have been meant to be worn under armor in battle. Its surface is decorated with painted squares and medallions and the entire Qur'an written out and bordered by the ninety-nine names of God written in gold against an orange background. Talismanic Shirt and detail, Northern India or Deccan ,15th–early 16th c., not on view.
The power of the names of religious figures (Mohammed’s relatives), the Qur'anic verses, and the Shi'i prayers endow this standard with its amuletic properties. E.g. the “Protective Throne Verse”: “His Throne doth extend/ Over the heavens/ And the earth, and He feeleth/ No fatigue in guarding/ And preserving them . . .”. Silver Standard, Iran, 18th century, not on view.
When I was 10, my Great Uncle Harry - in the back of his wholesale underwear store in Galesburg, IL. - gave me amuletic advise on the battle of life: “To attain your natural leadership, bring your ‘lucky marbles’, and play to win.”
Invisible Rules
Left: Ornamental ceramic star, Iran, gallery 453. Center: a set of 15 furmah and 3 zillij. Right: M.C. Escher’s study of a Moorish tile pattern, 1936.
One of the technical design languages in Moorish art is the Zillij (or Zellige) set based system. It combines geometric tiles (furmah) with complex rules (no holes, no parts of a furmah permitted, etc.). There are at least 360 known furmah and an uncountable number of Zillij constellations. These Moorish geometries inspired Escher’s interest in tessellations. For me, they recall the set technique of 20th century serial music. Lots of rules all around.
Left: Met Moroccan Court, gallery 456, inspired by two fourteenth-century madrasas of Fez. Right: Pattern generated by ruler and compass only.
These patterns, as noted above, are generated by ruler and compass only. The four basic shapes, or “repeat units,” are: circles and interlaced circles; squares or four-sided polygons; the ubiquitous star pattern, derived from squares and triangles inscribed in a circle; and multisided polygons. I have had a recurring dream since high school geometry, in which I alone discover the way to trisect any arbitrary angle with only a ruler and compass. This was proven impossible in 1837. It is still impossible today.
I was against high ornament in my youth (“youth” defined as adolescence). The Baroque, Mannerist and Islamic patterns were ”over the top”. I was at home with Classic, Renaissance, and Modern. Over the years, I understood this as a need for balance and structure. I liked simpler rules. As the complexities of life became comprehensible - I could admit it - the complex, expansive, and decorative became newly appreciated. Tiepolo and Bernini were joys to grow into, and the door to over-stimulating art has stayed open.
“I aim here only at revealing myself, who will perhaps be different tomorrow, if I learn something new which changes me.” - Montaigne
Some beautiful examples of Islamic calligraphy. One minor correction. There are vowels in the arabic/persian alphabets: alif (an "ah" sound), ‘ayn (gutteral "ah" sound), waw (an "oo" sound), ya (an "ee" sound), and combos like waw-alif = oo-ah = (elide into) wa.
There are diacritical, called hamzah, which are optional, and when used, can appear above or below certain letters to indicate vowels, glottal stops, etc.
Posted by: Another DL | January 18, 2020 at 10:00 AM
Thank you for the comment. My learning curve in this terrain is steep. As I depend on Montaigne, I simple quote him here.
“Mistakes often escape our eyes, but it is the sign of a poor judgment if we are unable to see them when shown to us by another . . . indeed to recognize one’s ignorance is one of the best and surest signs of judgment that I know.”
AB
Posted by: Alec Bernstein | January 18, 2020 at 08:45 PM