Naskh (script)

File:PERF No. 732.jpg

The Naskh style of writing can be found as early as within the first century of the Islamic calendar.{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ORgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22But+there+are+specimens+of%C2%A0Naskh%C2%A0style%22|title=بىاض|year=1977|publisher=Anjuman-e-Farsi|page=77}} The Naskh script was established in the first century of the Hijri calendar by order of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan due to the presence of defects in the Kufic script. Two centuries before{{Cite web |title=PERF No. 731: The Earliest Manuscript Of Malik's Muwatta' Dated To His Own Time |url=https://www.islamic-awareness.org/hadith/perf731 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=www.islamic-awareness.org}} it was recorded by Ibn Muqla Like Al-Muwatta written by Malik ibn Anas in a soft, rounded script

Ibn Muqla is credited with standardizing the "Six Pens" of Islamic calligraphy, also including {{lang|ar-Latn|italic=no|thuluth}}, {{lang|ar-Latn|italic=no|tawqi’}}, {{lang|ar-Latn|italic=no|riqaaʿ}}, {{lang|ar-Latn|italic=no|muhaqqaq}}, and {{lang|ar-Latn|italic=no|rayhani}}. These are known as "the proportioned scripts" ({{lang|ar-Latn|al-khatt al-mansub}}) or "the six scripts" ({{lang|ar-Latn|al-aqlam al-sitta}}).{{Cite book|title=Writing the word of God: calligraphy and the Qur'an|last=Roxburgh|first=David J.|date=2007|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Houston|isbn=9780300142006|location=Houston|oclc=180190749}}

Kufic is commonly believed to predate naskh, but historians have traced the two scripts as coexisting long before their codification by Ibn Muqla,{{Cite web |date=2017-01-24 |title=Naskh Script- Arabic calligraphy |url=https://www.arabic-calligraphy.com/arabic-calligraphy-styles/naskh/ |access-date=2024-10-08 |language=en-US}} as the two served different purposes.{{cite journal | last = Ali | first = A. K. M. Yaqub | journal = Islamic Studies | volume = 23 | issue = 4 | year = 1984 | pages = 373–379 | jstor = 20847281| title = Muslim Calligraphy: ITS Beginning and Major Styles }} Kufi was used primarily in decoration, while Naskh served for everyday scribal use.{{Cite book|title=The splendor of Islamic Abdelkebir|date=1996|publisher=Thames and Hudson|others=Sijelmassi, Mohamed|isbn=0500016755|location=New York|oclc=34275017}}.The Naskh script is believed to have existed since the first century of the Islamic calendar.{{Cite web |title=Naskhī script {{!}} Arabic, Islamic, Writing {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/naskhi-script |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

The alif is written as a straight stroke, bending to the lower left. Naskh differentiates various sounds through the use of diacritical points, in the form of 1–3 dots above or below the letter, which makes the script more easily legible. Naskh uses a horizontal base line; in situations where one character starts within the tail of the preceding letter, the base line is broken and raised.{{Cite journal|last=Ory|first=Solange|date=2000-11-30|title=Calligraphy|url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2686400107/GVRL?sid=GVRL&xid=bda4e644|journal=Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān|language=English|volume=1}} In sixteenth-century Constantinople, Şeyh Hamdullah (1429–1520) redesigned the structure of naskh, along with the other "Six Pens", in order to make the script appear more precise and less heavy.{{Cite journal|last=Zakariya|first=Muhammad|date=2003-11-30|title=Calligraphy|url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3424600634/GVRL?sid=GVRL&xid=c1da65f5|journal=Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa|language=English|volume=1}}

The script is what is normally used electronically and as the default typeface. Examples on typefaces in naskh on Windows (W), iOS (M), Linux (L), and Google Fonts (G):

• Arial^(W/M) (Arabic Transparent,^(W) Times New Roman)^(W/M)
• Simplified Arabic^(W)
• Courier New^(W/M) (monospace)
• Damascus^(M)
• Noto Naskh Arabic^(G)
• SF Arabic^(M){{cite web |title=Fonts for Apple Platforms |url=//developer.apple.com/fonts/ |access-date=14 February 2022}}

Naskh was historically used heavily in the transcription of books and in administrative courtly documents.

Naskh allowed for the development of decorative elements into more supple, rounded designs, away from the common use of squared kufic in decoration. Naskh's use in architecture first began in the tenth century and had been adopted in many Muslim countries by the eleventh century.

• KacstOne^(L)
• Arabic Typesetting^(W)
• Al Bayan^(M)
• DecoType Naskh^(M)
• Baghdad^(M)
• Geeza Pro^(M)
• Nadeem^(M)
• Sakkal Majalla^(W)
• Traditional Arabic^(W)
• Amiri^(G)

More recently, fonts, such as the Bulaq Press-inspired Amiri typeface or Monotype Imaging's Bustani font, have created user-friendly digital manifestations of naskh for use in graphic design and digital typography, mixed with Ruqʿah.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amirifont.org/|title=مشروع الخط الأميري :: Amiri Font Project|website=www.amirifont.org|access-date=2020-01-29}}{{Cite book|title=By the Pen and what They Write: Writing in Islamic Art and Culture |editor-last1=Blair |editor-first1=Sheila |editor-last2=Bloom |editor-first2=Jonathan M. |isbn=9780300228243|location=New Haven|oclc=971615736|year = 2017 |publisher=Yale University Press}}

File:Al Fatihah - naskh script.jpg|14th- or 15th-century Quran with body text in naskh

File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art pot 0491.1 CROP.jpg|Stonepaste dish from 13th-century Iran with a poem in naskh around the rim.

File:Basmala.svg|Basmala in naskh.

File:Prayer in Naskh, 1252 AH, Vesal-i Shirazi, National Library of Iran.jpeg|Prayer in naskh, 1252 AH, Vesal-i Shirazi, National Library of Iran.

File:15th-century Timurid Quran.jpg|The Timurid Quran manuscript, {{Circa|15th-century}}, written in naskh.

• Ruqʿah (the cursive Arabic handwriting)
• Nastaliq
• Arabic, Urdu, other Arabic keyboard layouts
• National Language Authority
• Taʿlīq script

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Naskh (script)}}

{{Arabic language}}

{{Islamic calligraphy}}

Category:Arabic calligraphy

Category:Islamic calligraphy

Category:Pashto