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Islamic ornament is the use of decorative forms and patterns in Islamic art and Islamic architecture. Its elements can be broadly divided into the arabesque , using curving plant-based elements, geometric patterns with straight lines or regular curves, and calligraphy , consisting of religious texts with stylized appearance, used both ...
A notable example is the Suaire de Saint-Josse, used to wrap the bones of St. Josse in the Abbey of St. Josse-sur-Mer, near Caen in north-western France. [2]: 223–5 As Islamic calligraphy is highly venerated, most works follow examples set by well-established calligraphers, with the exception of secular or contemporary works.
However, in the view of Hamilton Gibb, the emphasis differs: geometric patterns tend to be used for borders, and if they are in the main decorative area they are most often used in combination with other motifs such as floral designs, arabesques, animal motifs, or calligraphic script. Geometric designs in Islamic metalwork can form a grid ...
Calligraphic design is omnipresent in Islamic art, where, as in Europe in the Middle Ages, religious exhortations, including Qur'anic verses, may be included in secular objects, especially coins, tiles and metalwork, and most painted miniatures include some script, as do many buildings. Use of Islamic calligraphy in architecture extended ...
The Thuluth and Nasta'liq and Diwani script are other scripts used for Arabic scripting. The Thuluth script, used during the medieval times, is known as one of the oldest scripts to exist. The script was used in mosques and for Quranic text due to the appearance of the text. The Nasta'liq script is used more for Persian than Arabic scripting.
Whereas Arabic epigraphy was usually carved in stucco or painted on larger square tiles, these two examples contain very fine Arabic inscriptions in Naskhi script that are made from the assembly of coloured tile pieces cut in the form of the letters themselves and set into a white background. [18]
The Kufic script (Arabic: الْخط الْكوُفِي; Romanized: ‘Al-khat ‘al-Kūfī) is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts.
Early examples of Islamic geometric patterns made of straight strap lines can be seen in the architecture of the surviving gateway of the Ribat-i Malik caravanserai, Uzbekistan, built in 1078. [4] The wild application of girih on architectures should credit to the close relationship between Islamic architecture, geometry, and craft.