Thuluth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thuluth (Arabic: ثلث "one-third") is a script variety of Arabic calligraphy, which made its first appearance in the fourth century of the Hegira (11th century AD). It is known as one of the hardest Arabic scripts to write. The straight angular forms of Kufic were replaced in the new script by curved and oblique lines. In Thuluth, one-third of each letter slopes. It is a large and elegant, cursive script, used in medieval times on mosque decorations.

Various types of script invented later could be said to have been derived from Thuluth by the introduction of quite slight changes of form.

Thuluth was used to write heading of surahs, Qur'anic chapters. Some of the oldest copies of the Qur'an were written in Thuluth, later copies were written in a combination of Thuluth and either Naskhi or Muhakkak, while still later copies (after the 15th century) were written in Naskhi.

[edit] Use of short vowels in Thuluth script

An important aspect of Thuluth script is the use of Harakat for representing vowel sounds when added on (or below) letters, and for making the script look more beautiful. Obviously not any short vowel in the Arabic Alphabet can be used in both cases, because this would be very confusing for the reader. More precisely it is almost that there are different groups of Harakat that can be used for each (either for the art or the Grammar and pronunciation). For the grammatical Harakat, they follow the same rules that are used for any other Arabic script,but the 'Art' Harakat follow their own rules and sub-categories. One common grouping technique would be to separate Harakat that are written below letters, and the ones that are written above the letters. But every thing else in Thuluth is dynamic, it can be written in any shapes, structures, or orientation (Forward, backward,...etc) it all depends on the emotions, creativity, and the message that the artist wants to deliver.