Naskh

In the early days of Islam, the Arabs gave accomplishment to the Kufic calligraphy, because it was considered as a divine script. But most of the regions were struggling to read and write the Kufic.

This is the reason why the non – Arab region generated other Arabian scripts which could be easily read and write. A new style emerged, known to the history as Naskh which reached popularity and was used side by side with Kufic. Literally Naskh implies canceling.

It was given this name because it cancelled all of the other forms of writing and it started copying Quran as well as other books.

Naskh was emerged mainly in the whole Middle East including Egypt as well as some western countries.

It is still common in these regions because it got better popularity instead of decline .It is typically believed that Naskh calligraphy was originated by Ibn Muqlah in 310 AH however, recent studies believed that it was a development of the Kufic from the date when Islam arose.

The discovery from Jabal – Sala close to Madina has proved the cursive style ( Naskh ) existed at the dawn of Islam. Further studies showed that at the advent of Islam Naskh was main script, not a branch of Kufic script.

Naskh was emerged as a result of the inflexibility of Kufic and due to its free hand styl . It is still being used for copying the Holy Quran.

Naskh is a cursive style with roundness in its characters .According to the scholars , Naskh script emerged in 310 AH and still using for copying the Holy Quran. It basically crossed eleven centuries of its development which it took in several regions by different Calligraphers. It is a simple and easy style of writing that is the reason it crossed a millennium for its improvement.

IBN – E – MUQLAH is the first who invested his eager desire for introducing this new script. He is the first remarkable man who during 310 AH made basis for the new Arabic script, in place of Kufic. He established less complicated concepts such as circles, changing the angularity of Kufic and replacing the stiffness of Kufic, to generate much easier the way of writing for copying the Quran.