The Pen in Calligraphy
For this calligraphy project, I chose to sketch the word of “Allah” using pens—a reflective look at the importance of calligraphy and scripture itself in the formation and identity of Islam. As Sardar observes, the “Qur’an” even literally means “reading” in Arabic; calligraphy often proves a powerful way of drawing the beauty that Allah has created. Indeed, as we have seen in some of the paintings in the second week, many of the miniature paintings lack dimensionality so that the artist does not try to mimic Allah’s divine creations of the beauty in the world. Poetry and its penmanship—for example, as we see in zoomorphic calligraphy—therefore enter as appropriately modest media through which to express the wonder that Allah has created.
I was moved by this particular focus that transcends the art of poetry and extends into the presentation of the verse itself. There are few other religions that have such a strong emphasis on the art of writing, and that individual characteristic differentiates Islam—and even fewer have the detailed origin myth of God beseeching the worlds to create a script. Schimmel highlights few stories, ranging from letters following the patterns of light falling on a table to Adam’s purported writing of books that detail the language.
I used multiple types of pen in this image to connote the sense of unity within the multiplicity that Necipoglu described. Within multiple incarnations or different events, there is the one binding notion of “Allah” that unifies them together. And writing and the art of calligraphy similarly unite thoughts and people together.