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David Roxburgh, in Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur’an (published in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2007), relates that when Muhammad was in his fortieth year and went to a mountain cave called Hira outside Mecca, for devotional purposes, the angel Gabriel came to him when he was asleep and said, “Recite!” Gabriel repeated the word two more times before Muhammad finally answered, “What then shall I recite?” Gabriel then recited the first five verses of what would become sura 96 of the Koran: “Read in the name of your Lord who created / Created man from an embryo / Read, for your Lord is most beneficent / Who taught by the pen / Taught man what he did not know.” The pen, and by extension all of the implements for writing and the making of books—including papermaking, gilding, illuminating, miniature painting, and bookbinding—held an especially exalted place in Islamic arts, and as Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams note in Traces of the Calligrapher (also a Museum of Fine Arts, Houston exhibit, 2007), “Although no other book matched the Qur’an in holiness—as God’s eternal, uncreated word—all books and the art of writing partook of its importance.”

In its earliest form, consisting of very simple shapes, the script offered no clue that it would one day be held in such high regard. Over time, however, works of Islamic calligraphy became quite detailed and gorgeous; their creators were no doubt inspired by lofty sayings such as “Whoever writes ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’ in beautiful writing will enter paradise without account” (attributed to the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, fourth caliph and first Shiite imam Ali ibn Abi Talib). In an article in Saudi Aramco World, writer Kamel Al-Baba notes that calligraphy is an art “with a history, a gallery of great masters and hallowed traditions. It is an art of grace and elegance which inspires wonderment for its appearance alone. What distinguishes calligraphy from ordinary handwriting is, quite simply, beauty.” In fact, calligraphy means “beautiful writing.”

The Ottoman Turks perfected calligraphy, and in Istanbul the finest and most mature works were produced. A phrase widely quoted throughout the Islamic world is “The Qur’an was revealed in Mecca, read in Egypt, and written in Istanbul.” As the Turkish Culture Web site (turkishculture.org) points out, the literal meaning of the Turkish word for calligraphy, hat, is “line” or “way.” Husn-i Hat comprises beautiful lines inscribed with reed pens on paper using ink made from soot. Turkish calligraphists have always made the paper, pens, and ink they used. Pens were made of reeds or wood, and ends were cut into an angled nib, which must be recut regularly as it wears. The slightest deviation in the width of the nib alters the appearance of the writing, sometimes creating a serious artistic flaw.

In the thirteenth century, calligraphist Yakut al-Musta’sim made a breakthrough in calligraphy by using nibs of various widths and sizes in one composition. Sheik Hamdullah, an especially talented calligraphist from the period of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror, was to elevate the art still higher: Sultan Beyazit gave Hamdullah his own collection of calligraphy, including all the examples he had of Yakut’s work, and asked him if he could create a new, individual calligraphic script. After examining the six different types of script used by Yakut, Sheikh Hamdullah succeeded in creating a new, original script of his own. He is considered the founder of the art of Ottoman calligraphy.

The Museum of Fine Arts exhibits referenced above also traveled to the Asia Society in New York under the name of Calligraphy: Writing the Word of God (October 7, 2008-February 9, 2009), and I was fortunate to see it as it was one of the best museum shows I’ve ever seen. The show highlighted some of the chief developments that took place in the art and practice of copying Islam’s sacred text from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries, and the objects displayed—scissors,