Arabic Calligraphy vs Persian Miniature

アラビア書道 / ペルシア細密画

Arabic Calligraphy comes from Calligraphic Traditions and Persian Miniature from Indian Painting. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Arabic Calligraphy

Arabic Calligraphy — クーフィー体のクルアーン写本 8–9世紀 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainArabic Calligraphy — スルス体の祈祷文 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainArabic Calligraphy — スレイマン1世のトゥグラ（花押）16世紀 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

A tradition that holds writing to be the highest of the arts. From Kufic to Thuluth it has gone on refining an architecture of line, in the tension between canon and individual hand.

Persian Miniature

Persian Miniature — スルタン・ムハンマド『ゲイユマルスの宮廷』1520年代 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPersian Miniature — ハーフィゼ・アブルー写本より ノアの方舟 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPersian Miniature — ヘラート派『ゴレスターン』写本 1486 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Multiple viewpoints, jewel-like pigments and a composition unafraid of empty space paint poetry and history as complete worlds contained inside a book.

Arabic CalligraphyPersian Miniature
Era7th century–13th–17th century
FamilyCalligraphic TraditionsIndian Painting
KindStyleStyle
CuesArchitectural letterforms / Canonical scripts / Breathing thick-and-thin / Composition united with ornamentMulti-viewpoint space / Saturated mineral pigments / Ornamentalized nature / Script united with image
Best used forArabic titling and logotypes that must respect the canonical scripts · Architectural and craft ornament where the writing is the structureIllustration that shows several moments of a story in one sheet · Books and bindings where text setting and image share one design
TypeChoose one script and follow its proportions for joining and stackingBuild the text panel into the picture, one ruled order for both
CompositionWork right to left, shape the mass through overlap and empty groundDepth by height instead of perspective, figures spilling past the border
MaterialThick and thin from the reed angle, gold and blue kept to ornamentHold mineral saturation, tighten planes with fine outlines and gold points
CautionSetting Arabic letter by letter as if it were Latin breaks the joins, and the word stops being readable long before it stops being beautiful.Converting the multiple viewpoints into single-point perspective collapses the space and destroys the picture's ability to narrate simultaneous events.

Put these two together

Calligraphic Traditions ／ Indian Painting

IndexStyle