The Cosmic Script

Author: Ahmed Mostafa and Stephen Sperl

Version: 2014

language: English

Publisher: Layan Cultural Company, Thames & Hudson

In volume one the authors reveal the trilogy of prophecy, partnership, and geometry at the foundation of Ibn Muqla’s Proportioned Script. Providing a fully illustrated analysis of Islamic calligraphy’s geometrical principles as transmitted in surviving writings and key manuscript sources, they examine the geometric grid of square, circle, and hexagon that informs the pen strokes of each letter shape and explore how the golden ratio appears within the matrix of the grid. They examine the development of Ibn Muqla’s system in the context of the sciences, arts, and penmanship of 10th-century Baghdad. Volume two of The Cosmic Script addresses the nature of spiritual geometry and how it governs the structure of the 19 letter shapes that make up the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet and the ligature lam-alif. Based upon the theoretical foundations established in volume one, the authors explain how to construct each of the 19 letter shapes and reveal the process at work as the pen, guided by the human hand, transforms them from rigid geometric shapes into pliant, lifelike organic forms