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Buy a digital subscription Go to the Digital EditionJoachim Meyer, of Copenhagen’s David Collection, on the powerful aura of Islamic calligraphy
The term calligraphy traditionally means “artful/beautiful handwriting” or “the art of writing beautifully”. The craft has been held in great esteem in many cultures around the world, and its practitioners have been regarded as artists on a par with painters and sculptors.
Nowhere, however, has calligraphy played such a prominent and enduring role as in the Islamic world. A strong writing culture was established there at an early stage, with calligraphers working with pen and ink on traditional mediums such as papyrus, parchment and paper. But right from the outset, artful writing in Arabic lettersvisual and decorative arts exhibitions also found its way onto other materials – textiles, ceramics, wood, stone, metal and glass – and to an extent unparalleled in other cultures. Much of the effort invested in figurative art elsewhere has, in the Islamic world, benefited calligraphy.
The ambition of our exhibition at the David Collection, Beyond Words: Calligraphy from the World of Islam, is to shed light on the most important aspects that characterise Arabic script.
A special aura, spearheaded by the example of the Koran, was attached to the Arabic alphabet, which is why it gained prominence outside the Arab-speaking world. Small adjustments to some letters in the form of dots and dashes made it possible to represent sounds not known in Arabic, but in languages such as Turkish, Persian or Urdu. As testament to the spread of Islam, the collection of the david all photos: pernille klemp, courtesy alphabet reached as far as China and Malaysia and was also used in large parts of southern Europe thanks to the Muslim expansion into the Iberian peninsula and the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.
Beyond Words is at the David Collection, Copenhagen, until Jan 26, 2025. This article is an edited excerpt from the catalogue, which is available from cornucopia.net
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