Researsh " Arabic Fonts Origins".

Imane El Allame
Typography




Arabic origins:


Arabic is one of the Semitic languages including Armaic and Hebrew, and all three languages are read from right to left. Actually Arabic language consists of two general groups that are the classical Arabic and it is used on the holy Quran and the modern Arabic that is most used on the media and literary texts.
“ The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 consonantal signs (three of which are also used as long vowels). Scholars also agreed that Arabic script is traced back to Nabaetan script that dates from the third century A.D and then later produced a static, angular script known as JAZM.
At the 7th century A.D with the dawn of Islam calligraphy became important. According to scholars “ the divine revelation created the need to record every word of holy Quran in exact detail, heroic feats of memory could no longer be relied upon. The Arab fascination with the beauty of spoken word coupled with the limitations of existing Arabic scripts played a positive role in the development of Arabic calligraphy as an art form.” Because Arabs were very interested in poetry before and after Islam, they began to develop Arabic script to an aesthetic calligraphic and be as an art form.
In 651 A.D the first copies of the holy Quran were written in the scripts of Mecca and Medina local variants of Jazm. Later, Kufi style was created from Jazm script and then led to a large amount of variation about 150 types.
Big Change:
The first change that took place in the written language was the insertion of diacritic points .
Other fonts:
Naskhi: 10th century, it was used for copying the holy quran. Nashi is characterized by short horizental stems and almost equal vertical depth above and below the medial line.

Ta`liq: 15th was developed in Persia spread in Turkey, Pakistan and the Indian sub-continent. Mostly used in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Diwani: Based on Ta`liq with less dramatic hanging baselines,
Riq`a: From the 15th century but became dominant at the early 19th century. It is used in Egypt.
Thuluth: Back to the 7th century but it didn’t develop until the late 9th century. Ornamental scripts and the lines are used for calligraphic inscription, titles and headings.
Kufic: Achieved a level of perfection at the 7th century. The script is characterized by its static, rectangular lines and the short vertical stokes and extended horizontal lines.




Sources: Arabic for Designers. Author: Mourad Boutros