The Cosmic Script

Abstract

This cloth-bound, large-format book set is a quest to understand and apply the contents of a groundbreaking fourth/tenth-century treatise that reformed Arabic penmanship and established the canon of calligraphy applied to this day. Muhamad ibn Ali ibn Muqla’s treatise The Proportioned Script acts as the esoteric center of a riddle not unlike the unraveling of a lost book through other books as seen in Umberto Echo’s The Name of the Rose. In this case, The Proportioned Script is but a succinct treatise, for Ibn Muqla’s two explanatory manuscripts detailing the proportions and methods are lost – and can only be retraced through subsequent studies and drawn reconstruction. Why such a monumental effort to unravel a single small treatise on Arabic penmanship? As the authors explain, it was and is the canon of proportion in writing and reveals a great deal about the sociocultural context and the importance of script related to faith. Hence the title of the book. The Cosmic Script is clearly the result of significant research. The two authors met over four decades ago, during which Moustafa completed an MA and a PhD on the subject. They collaborated for eight years on unraveling The Proportioned Script through other sources and reconstructed the canon of letters by a detailed geometric analysis and Moustafa’s own artistic practice of application. The first volume includes an introduction and seven chapters outlining the historical and spiritual background of the Arabic script in terms of ancient pre-Islamic influences. The second volume contains an introduction and twenty-one chapters, of which nineteen cover the specific letter families and outline sources and specific graphics for each letter’s formulation. “Decoding the “Geometry of Letters,” the introduction to the first volume, describes Ibn Muqla as having invented the theory of proportioned script that transformed this art form and had a significant impact upon the culture of the Abbasid era and beyond. He derived his system from the scribal dot (square in form, on an angle) and thus, according to the authors, linked prophecy, writing, and geometry with the sacred dimensions. The elevated rank of the pen and writing were underscored by the first revealed Qur’anic verses and the sacred status of the physical Qur’an. The authors argued that geometry bridged ...