Reading a style: Kufic and nasta'liq

Brief

This lesson asks you to show an understanding of how to read and interpret signs, symbols and style in art works. The museum offers two Arabic scripts, Kufic and nasta'liq, in which you can read a style's name, its features and the story of its origin. The symbols and styles of other arts your class must bring from elsewhere. ¹

What does a style's name tell you?

Read the name of the script and ask whether it points to a place or to a shape, and what in the text is your evidence.

What is the difference between a legend and the scholars' account?

Put each in its own column. Ask what each one explains and what it leaves unexplained.

Go deeper

A double leaf from an Abbasid Qur'an at The Met carries seven lines of bold Kufic. The record says the letters are stretched out sideways, and this may have told the reciter to hold a letter or a word longer. The vowels are red or green dots ². Maryam Ekhtiar says Kufic is marked by clarity, generous spacing and letters that stretch along the line ³.

Think about it

The letters on this page are stretched wide, and the vowels are red or green dots. If you were reading aloud from this page, which of the two would help you more, and why?

Into the museum

Kufic script: the angular script, and the page of the Qur'an at The Met.
Nasta'liq script: the second script of the lesson, with the legend of its beginning and the scholars' account.
Hijazi script: the script that Kufic replaced for copying the Qur'an.

Try this

Read about Kufic script and nasta'liq script. List three features of each as the text describes them, then decide which feature is enough to recognise a script among others.