A Closer Look - The Arts of Islam

By the tenth century, the rapid spread of Islam prompted calligraphers to refine and standardize six cursive scripts—thuluth, muhaqqaq, naskh, rayhani, tauqi, and riqa—used for literary, religious, and administrative works. Together with the introduction of paper in the mid–eighth century from China, the development of more legible and easily transcribable scripts revolutionized manuscript production throughout the Islamic world. In fifteenth–century Iran, another script known as nasta`liq was devised for the transcription of poetry. This script was also employed in India and Turkey, where Persian literary culture prevailed.