Name the style of calligraphy

Today we have a quiz question sent in by TJ – can you identify the style of calligraphy of the piece below, and also the writing, language and what it says?

quiz question 01/10/06

Comments (15)

geeOctober 1st, 2006 at 1:28 pm

Looks like Arabic. Diwani style?

RamsesOctober 1st, 2006 at 1:39 pm

Or Persian, of course…

AROctober 1st, 2006 at 4:17 pm

I think it is Diwani, the Turkish calligraphy. Since it is round, it might be the Moorish kind too. There is the letter “heh” in the middle and “hah” at the outside. It also looks like it could have the letter “sin” and maybe “beh”.

AROctober 1st, 2006 at 4:21 pm

Just a hunch—Could it say “Shah Abbas”? I think the letters areشحابپهس .

Ben L.October 1st, 2006 at 5:17 pm

I believe it might be simply Arabic “Allah”. The style doesn’t seem much different than standard Arabic calligraphy, for one. A few points:

1) Alif is not a connecting letter (i.e. it will have no ligature to the following letter), which might ake you think the first letter couldn’t be alif. Alif must, however, connect at the bottom, which this initial doesn’t do, reopening the possibility that it is in fact alif. The ligature we do see, in that case, would be purely decorative.

2) Instead of sin, look at the long and short lines around the center and imagine them as two lams. Note they both have bottom ligatures on either side.

3) Notice the sheddah slightly above left of center. This indicates a double lam, as in “Allah”.

4) Finally, ha is often written cursively without a distinct loop, much like the “camel hump” we see. I admit it might look like ra or even sin’s loop, I think though that in this case “Allah” is the best guess.

TJOctober 1st, 2006 at 8:54 pm

Ben L. got it! :)
it is “Allah”
and the style is as gee said! ….. it is Diwani! :)

What do you think Simon? To whom the gift now shall be going!????

TJOctober 2nd, 2006 at 2:52 am

By the way I should thank my brother for writing this piece!
he also wrote for me the word Allah in other styles like: tholoth, and Farsi (or what’s also called Nasta`liq) … and also another one in Diwani other than this one! :)

SimonOctober 2nd, 2006 at 9:17 am

No gifts are on offer here I’m afraid, but would gee or Ben L. like to come up with a question for this week’s quiz?

TJOctober 2nd, 2006 at 12:59 pm

Oh by the way, the small “H” and the “V” like shape in the picture are actually for ornamentation, but sometimes they can be used as a guide to identify the letters in the main piece itself … like the small “H” is written under the last “H” in Allah to make the viewer identify that letter in the main word.
The “V” is not a real guide, but someone told me before that it used to have a meaning but I don’t know what is that!
If the style was “Diwani Jaley” you would see lot of V’s and small dots and also a 6-like shaped ornamentations! … which makes the reading even harder if you’re eyes are not trained. We could have hard time reading a word if it is written in such styles and our eyes are not trained on the general shape of the word or the sentence they are written in!

Laci the HunOctober 2nd, 2006 at 6:23 pm

oh it was fairly easy :D
by the way ramaDaan kariim :D (for those muslimuun who are fasting like me)

TJOctober 2nd, 2006 at 7:18 pm

>> Luci: Mubarak `Alayki Al-Shahr (Blesses of the month may fall upon you!) :)

Laci the HunOctober 3rd, 2006 at 8:03 pm

shukran :) afhamt klamek, liish atkallam °arabii :D (qliilan)

TJOctober 3rd, 2006 at 11:15 pm

haha!
وأنا كذلك فهمتك

can you read this?? :D

Laci the HunOctober 4th, 2006 at 6:17 pm

aiwa! mashii mushkil yaa ekhii :) ( walaakin Hruuf Sghiira jiddan)
qult: wa ana kedhaalik fahamtek :D (=and I understand you)

ash hadha “haha”? °alaash ka-tDHiksh?

parkbenchOctober 4th, 2006 at 11:59 pm

Ah, damn my behindednessitude on the omniglot blog! I recognised this the moment I saw it.

Al kham du li-llah!

(ps: is there an arabic IME? i need it.)