1.
Calligraphy
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Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, a contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable, classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, the principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. Calligraphy pens write with nibs that may be flat, round, for some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens. There are some styles of calligraphy, like Gothic script, which require a stub nib pen, Writing ink is usually water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. Normally, light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work, ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most often ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are occasionally used. This is the case with litterea unciales, and college-ruled paper often acts as a guideline well, common calligraphy pens and brushes are, Quill Dip pen Ink brush Qalam Fountain pen Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script. The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, in the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed. As writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was more suitable for copying the Bible. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, at the height of the Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain, when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon, each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region, which are mostly cursive and hardly readable. Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the copying of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial developed from a variety of Roman bookhands, the 7th-9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Charlemagnes devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of a crowd of scribes, according to Alcuin, Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one hand from which modern booktype descends
Calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Calligraphy
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Calligraphy of the German word "Urkunde"(deed)
Calligraphy
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Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels (c.700) contains the
incipit from the
Gospel of Matthew.
Calligraphy
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Calligraphy in a
Latin Bible of 1407 on display in
Malmesbury Abbey,
Wiltshire, England. This bible was hand written in Belgium, by Gerard Brils, for reading aloud in a
monastery.
2.
Chinese calligraphy
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Chinese calligraphy is a form of calligraphy widely practiced in China and revered in the Chinese cultural sphere, which often includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. There is a standardization of the various styles of calligraphy in this tradition. Chinese calligraphy and ink and wash painting are closely related, since they are accomplished using similar tools, Chinese painting and calligraphy distinguish themselves from other cultural arts because they emphasize motion and are charged with dynamic life. According to Stanley-Baker, Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time, Calligraphy has also led to the development of many forms of art in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and inkstones. In China, calligraphy is referred to as Shūfǎ, literally, the way/method/law of writing, Shodō in Japan, Chinese calligraphy is normally regarded as one of the arts in the countries where it is practised. Chinese calligraphy focuses not only on methods of writing but also on cultivating ones character, Calligraphy is also considered an art where works are appreciated more or only for their aesthetic qualities. Chinese characters can be retraced to 4000 BC signs, in 2003, at the site of Xiaoshuangqiao, about 20 km southeast of the ancient Zhengzhou Shang City, ceramic inscriptions dating to 1435–1412 BC have been found by archaeologists. These writings are made in cinnabar paint, thus, the dates of writing in China have been confirmed for the Middle Shang period. The ceramic ritual vessel vats that bear these cinnabar inscriptions were all unearthed within the area of this site. They were unearthed mostly in the sacrificial pits holding cow skulls and cow horns, the inscriptions are written on the exterior and interior of the rim, and the exterior of the belly of the large type of vats. The characters are mostly written singly, character compounds or sentences are rarely seen, the contemporary Chinese characters set principles were clearly visible in ancient Chinas Jiǎgǔwén characters carved on ox scapulas and tortoise plastrons around 14th - 11th century BCE. Brush-written examples decay over time and have not survived, during the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved. With the development of Jīnwén and Dàzhuàn cursive signs continued, moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters. In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles — some dating from 200 BC, despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, little paper survives from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles. The Lìshū style which is more regularized, and in ways similar to modern text, were also authorised under Qin Shi Huang. Kǎishū style — still in use today — and attributed to Wang Xizhi and its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang, who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed shapes to stabilize, the Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have made, for example in the shape of 广 which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books
Chinese calligraphy
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Chinese calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy
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On Calligraphy by
Mi Fu,
Song Dynasty
Chinese calligraphy
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A Chinese calligraphy set, Gurgaon, near Delhi, India
3.
Georgian calligraphy
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Georgian calligraphy is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing of the Georgian language using its three Georgian scripts. Georgia has a tradition of a calligraphic school. Hand-written books from the early centuries became a cultural and a phenomenon in Georgia. Every year on April 14, Georgia celebrates the Day of Georgian language, on this day the calligraphy contests are held, the winners are named and awards are given to the best calligraphers at the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts. Georgian calligraphy was created outside of Georgia as well. ვის აქვს ყველაზე ლამაზი ხელწერა საქართველოში და როგორ გადახატეს „ვეფხისტყაოსნის” აფორიზმები კონკურსანტებმა
Georgian calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Georgian calligraphy
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"წყალობითა მღუთისათა ჩვენ იესიან დავითიან სოლომანიან ბაგრატოვანმან ძემან ცხებულის მეფის თეიმურაზისამან მეორე ირაკლი მეფემან საქართველოისამან ქართლისა კახეთისა.." "With mercy of God we of
Jesse,
David,
Solomon,
Bagrationi son of
Teimuraz II and
Erekle II King of Georgia, Kartli, Kakheti.."
Georgian calligraphy
Georgian calligraphy
4.
Indian calligraphy
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Beginning in the 2nd century AD, Indic language was transferred using birch bark as a writing surface. Locally, the bark was called Bhojpatra in India - patra meaning leaf/bark/sheet in Sanskrit. Palm leaves were used as a substitute to paper, even after paper was available for Indic manuscripts, the leaves were commonly used because they were a good surface for pen writing, which created the delicate and decorative handwriting that is known as calligraphy today. Both sides of leaves were used and they were stacked on top of each other. People then created holes on the leaves and held together by string, thus creating the early Indian manuscripts. Indian traders, colonists, military adventurers, Buddhist monks and missionaries brought the Indic script to the countries of South East Asia, sikhs have traditionally handwritten their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, and furnished it with illumination. Sikh calligrapher Pratap Singh Giani is known for one of the first definitive translations of Sikh scriptures into English, religious texts are the most frequent vehicle for calligraphy in India. Monastic Buddhist communities had members trained in calligraphy and having shared responsibility for duplicating sacred scriptures, Jaina traders incorporated illustrated manuscripts celebrating Jaina saints. These manuscripts were produced using inexpensive material with fine calligraphy, Indian Epigraphy, A guide to the study of inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and other Indo-aryan languages. New York, Oxford University Press,1999, Anderson, D. M. Indic calligraphy, Encyclopædia Britannica 2008. This site also has information on a range of Indian scripts, scripts and Languages of India ^ Anderson, D. M
Indian calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Indian calligraphy
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A fragment of
Ashoka's 6th pillar edict.
Indian calligraphy
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An illustrated manuscript of the
Mahabharata with calligraphy
Indian calligraphy
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Ghalib poem in
Nastaliq
5.
Islamic calligraphy
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Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, based upon the alphabet in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. It includes Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian calligraphy and it is known in Arabic as khatt Islami, meaning Islamic line, design, or construction. The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Quran, chapters, deep religious association with the Quran, as well as suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous has led calligraphy to become one of the major forms of artistic expression in Islamic cultures. As Islamic calligraphy is highly venerated, most works follow examples set by well established calligraphers, in antiquity, a pupil would copy a masters work repeatedly until their handwriting was similar. The most common style is divided into angular and cursive, each divided into several sub-styles. Some styles are often written using a metallic-tip pen, Islamic calligraphy is applied on a wide range of decorative mediums other than paper, such as tiles, vessels, carpets, and inscriptions. Before the advent of paper, papyrus and parchment were used for writing, the advent of paper revolutionized calligraphy. While monasteries in Europe treasured a few volumes, libraries in the Muslim world regularly contained hundreds. Coins were another support for calligraphy, beginning in 692, the Islamic caliphate reformed the coinage of the Near East by replacing visual depiction with words. This was especially true for dinars, or gold coins of high value, generally the coins were inscribed with quotes from the Quran. By the tenth century, the Persians, who had converted to Islam, so precious were calligraphic inscribed textiles that Crusaders brought them to Europe as prized possessions. A notable example is the Suaire de Saint-Josse, used to wrap the bones of St. Josse in the Abbey of St. Josse-sur-Mer near Caen in northwestern France, Kufic is the oldest form of the Arabic script. The style emphasizes rigid and angular strokes, which appears as a form of the old Nabataean script. The Archaic Kufi consisted of about 17 letters without diacritic dots or accents, afterwards, dots and accents were added to help readers with pronunciation, and the set of Arabic letters rose to 29. It is developed around the end of the 7th century in the areas of Kufa, Iraq, the style later developed into several varieties, including floral, foliated, plaited or interlaced, bordered, and squared kufi. There were no set rules of using the Kufic script, the common feature is the angular, linear shapes of the characters. Common varieties include square Kufic, a known as bannai. Contemporary calligraphy using this style is popular in modern decorations
Islamic calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy
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The phrase
Bismillah in an 18th-century Islamic calligraphy from the
Ottoman region.
Islamic calligraphy
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9th century
Qur'an, an early kufic example from the
Abbasid period.
Islamic calligraphy
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Bowl with
Kufic Calligraphy, 10th century.
Brooklyn Museum.
6.
Japanese calligraphy
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Japanese calligraphy is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. The term shodō is likely derived from Chinese origin as it is used to describe the art of Chinese calligraphy during the Chinese Tang dynasty period. In modern calligraphy, a number of tools are used to make a composition, most basic four tools were collectively called Four Treasures of the Study. The best inksticks are between 50 and 100 years old, mulberry paper An inkstone to grind the inkstick against, mixed with water. Other tools include, A paper weight to hold the paper in place A cloth to place under the paper to prevent ink from bleeding through, the art of engraving a seal is called tenkoku 篆刻. The student is encouraged to engrave his own seal, the position of the seal or the seals is based on aesthetic views. One is not allowed to put a seal on a sutras calligraphy, during preparation, water is poured into the inkstone and the inkstick is ground against it, mixing the water with the dried ink to liquefy it. As this is a process, modern-day calligraphy provides liquid ink in a bottle called Bokuju and is frequently used by beginners. More advanced students are encouraged to grind their own ink. Paper is usually placed on a desk, the brushes come in various shapes and sizes, and are usually made using animal hair for the bristles. Typical animal hair may come from goats, sheep, horse-hair, the handle may be made from wood, bamboo, plastic or other materials. The Chinese roots of Japanese calligraphy go back to the twenty-eighth century B. C. to a time when pictographs were inscribed on bone for religious purposes and he sanctioned a form of script based on squares of uniform size into which all characters could be written from eight strokes. He also devised rules of composition where horizontal strokes are written first and characters are composed starting from top to bottom, left to right. Because the symbols were inscribed with sharp instruments, the lines were originally angular and in many ways Li Sis achievements were made obsolete by the appearance of brush, the ink-wet brush creates a line quite different from a sharp stylus. It affords variation in thickness and curve of line, Calligraphy retained the block form of Li Si and his eight strokes but the writer was free to create characters that emphasized aesthetically pleasing balance and form. The way a character was written gave a message of style, Calligraphy in the Chinese tradition was thus introduced to Japan about 600 A. D. Known as the tradition, it has been practiced up to today. The oldest existing text in Japan is the inscription on the halo of the Medicine Buddha statue in the Hōryū-ji Temple. This Chinese text was written in Shakyōtai style, prominent in the Chinese Six Dynasties period, the Hōryū-ji Temple also holds bibliographic notes on the Lotus Sutra, the Hokke Gisho was written early in the 7th century and is considered the oldest Japanese text
Japanese calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Japanese calligraphy
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A traditional inkstone to grind ink and water against.
Japanese calligraphy
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A typical brush used for calligraphy.
Japanese calligraphy
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Inscription on the halo of the statue of the
Medicine Buddha,
Hōryū-ji Temple Written in the 7th century
7.
Korean calligraphy
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Korean calligraphy is the Korean tradition of artistic writing in Hangul or Hanja, respectively the Korean alphabet and Chinese characters. Chinese characters were introduced to Korea as early as the 2nd or 3rd century AD, the poet Choe Chiwon was also known for his calligraphy, a sample of which is engraved in a rock in Haeundae, Busan. The angular styles of the early Tang masters, Yu Shinan, Ouyang Xun, and Yan Zhenqing, persisted until the 14th century, Korean calligraphy became increasingly formalistic in the years that followed. Kim Jung-hee revolutionized Korean calligraphy in the early 19th century, introducing what is known as the style after his pen name 秋史. As the scholarly classes used Chinese characters, Korean calligraphy used hanja until the 1910–1945 Japanese occupation of Korea, nationalist sentiment led to the popularization of the native hangul alphabet, and calligraphic works using hangul have since seen a revival. The Korean calligraphy is developing its own style, steadfastly, fonts that are not square are being developed, considering jong-sung, or sound coming after the vowel. Newspaper article with visuals on Korean calligraphy
Korean calligraphy
Korean calligraphy
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Calligraphy by Kim Jung-hee; Written in his own style named 'Chu-Sa-Chae(추사체)'
Korean calligraphy
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Hanja Calligraphy by Han Ho; titled as "Jeungryu yeojang seochep"
8.
Mongolian calligraphy
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Mongolian calligraphy is a kind of calligraphy of the Mongolian people of Central Asia. Like most other calligraphies in East Asia it is mostly done with a brush, although the Mongolian language in Mongolia uses a Cyrillic orthography adopted during the Communist era, Mongolian calligraphy is written in the traditional Mongolian bichig script. In 2013, Mongolian Calligraphy was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, at present, only three middle-aged scholars voluntarily train the small community of just over twenty young calligraphers. Traditionally, mentors select the best students and train them to be calligraphers over a period of five to eight years, students and teachers bond for life and continue to stimulate each other’s artistic endeavours. The rate of transformation, urbanization and globalization have led to a significant drop in the number of young calligraphers
Mongolian calligraphy
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The
Imperial Seal of Mongolia using the classical Mongolian script, as found in a letter
Güyük Khan sent to the Roman Pope Innocent IV.
Mongolian calligraphy
Mongolian calligraphy
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Calligraphy
9.
Persian calligraphy
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Persian calligraphy or Iranian calligraphy is the calligraphy of the Persian language. It is one of the most revered arts throughout history of Iran, after the introduction of Islam in the 7th century, Persians adapted the Arabic alphabet to Persian and developed the contemporary Persian alphabet. The Arabic alphabet has 28 characters, an additional four letters were added by Iranians, which resulted in the 32 letters currently present in the Persian alphabet. Around one thousand years ago, Ibn Muqlah and his brother created six genres of Iranian calligraphy, namely Mohaqiq, Reyhan, Sols, Naskh, Toqi and these genres were common for four centuries in Persia. In the 7th century, Hassan Farsi Kateb combined the Naskh and Reqah styles, in the 14th century, Mir Ali Tabrizi combined two major scripts of his time, i. e. Naskh and Taliq, and created a new Persian calligraphic style called Nas’taliq. In the past 500 years Nastaʿlīq has been the predominant style for writing the Perso-Arabic script, history of cursive Nastaliq In the 17th century Morteza Gholi Khan Shamlou and Mohammad Shafi Heravi created a new genre called cursive Nastaʿlīq Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq. Almost a century later, Abdol-Majid Taleqani, who was a prominent artist at the time and this calligraphic style is based on the same rules as Nas’taliq. However, cursive Nas’taliq has a few significant differences, it more flexible movements. Yadollah Kaboli is one of the most prominent contemporary calligraphers within this style, in 1950, the Irans Association of Calligraphers was founded by Hossein Mirkhani, Ali Akbar Kaveh, Ebrahim Bouzari, Hassan Mirkhani and Mehdi Baiani. For an overview of Persian calligraphys development within Afghanistan, see Calligraphy during last two centuries in Afghanistan, by Azizuddin Vakili. Zendeh Roudi, Jalil Rasouli, Parviz Tanavoli, and Nima Behnoud use Persian calligraphy and Rumi poetry in dress designing. this style of work can be classified as post modern
Persian calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Persian calligraphy
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Example showing Nastaʿlīq's proportion rules.
Persian calligraphy
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Persian calligraphy.
Persian calligraphy
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Folio of Poetry From the Divan of Sultan Husayn Mirza, ca. 1490.
Brooklyn Museum.
10.
Tibetan calligraphy
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Tibetan calligraphy refers to the calligraphic traditions used to write the Tibetan language. As in other parts of East Asia, nobles, high lamas, however, unlike calligraphy in China, Japan, and Korea, calligraphy was done using a reed pen as opposed to a brush. Nevertheless, East Asian influence is apparent visually, as Tibetan calligraphy is at times more free-flowing than calligraphy involving the descendants of other Brahmi scripts. Given the overriding religious nature of Tibetan culture, many of the traditions in calligraphy come from religious texts, when handwritten, it is the most basic form of calligraphy, and must be mastered before moving onto other styles. The feature which distinguishes it the most from u-chan is the lack of the lines on the top of letters. The bêcug style is a narrow, cursive variant of umê in squarish shape, the zhuza style is a variant of umê but with ujain vowel symbol. Curve-leg zhuza straight-leg zhuza short-leg zhuza The cugtung style is shortened, abbreviated variant of u-me, the cugrin style The kyugyig is a highly abbreviated, fluid, cursive version of u-me. It is a form of handwriting for notes and personal letters. General cursive extremely cursive The cug-ma-kyugyig style - a style halfway between cugyig and kyugyig The gyugyig style The vertical Phags-pa script is known as horyig, a more ornamental version of the horyig style was used in the past to make personal seals. It is often written vertically as opposed to horizontally. These styles are not fixed, and are not limited to those listed above, by mixing features of various styles, and adding various ornaments to the text, the number of styles becomes quite large. While ujain may be used to write entire Sutras or Buddhist texts, the world record for the longest calligraphy scroll is held by Jamyang Dorjee Chakrishar, who penned a 163.2 meter scroll containing 65,000 Tibetan characters. The scroll contains prayers for the 14th Dalai Lama composed by 32 different monks
Tibetan calligraphy
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Calligraphy
11.
Western calligraphy
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Western calligraphy is the art of writing and penmanship as practiced in the Western world, especially using the Latin alphabet. A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, the story of writing is one of aesthetic development framed within the technical skills, transmission speed and material limitations of a person, time and place. A style of writing is described as a script, hand or alphabet, the rolls of papyrus used in classical antiquity in Late Antiquity were gradually replaced by the codex. Reed pens were replaced by quill pens, isidore of Seville explained the then-current relation between codex, liber and volumen in his Etymologiae, Codex multorum librorum est, liber unius voluminis. Et dictus codex per translationem a codicibus arborum seu vitium, quasi caudex, a codex is composed of many books, a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches. With the onset of the Middle Ages from about the 7th century, charlemagnes devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of a crowd of scribes, according to Alcuin, the Abbot of York. Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule, the first manuscript in this hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one hand from which modern booktype descends. Blackletter and its variation Rotunda, gradually developed from the Carolingian hand during the 12th century, over the next three centuries, the scribes in northern Europe used an ever more compressed and spiky form of Gothic. Those in Italy and Spain preferred the rounder but still heavy-looking Rotunda, during the 15th century, Italian scribes returned to the Roman and Carolingian models of writing and designed the Italic hand, also called Chancery cursive, and Roman bookhand. These three hands — Gothic, Italic, and Roman bookhand — became the models for printed letters, johannes Gutenberg used Gothic to print his famous Bible, but the lighter-weight Italic and Roman bookhand have since become the standard. During the Middle Ages, hundreds of thousands of manuscripts were produced, some illuminated with gold and fine painting, some illustrated with line drawings, towards the end of the Middle Ages, administration in the states of Western Europe became more centralised. Paper was again available in Europe, which allowed a bureaucracy with standardized bookkeeping. It was disseminated around England by bureaucrats on official business and slowly gained prestige, the production of finalized, calligraphic copies of documents in Chancery hand came to be known as engrossing, from Anglo-French engrosser. In the late 1490s and early 1500s, the early printer Richard Pynson favored Chancery Standard in his published works, in the mid-1600s French officials, flooded with documents written in various hands and varied levels of skill, complained that many such documents were beyond their ability to decipher. The Office of the Financier thereupon restricted all legal documents to three hands, namely the Coulee, the Rhonde, and a Speed Hand sometimes simply called the Bastarda. With the destruction of the Camera Apostolica during the sack of Rome, by 1600, the Italic Cursiva began to be replaced by a technological refinement, the Italic Chancery Circumflessa, which in turn fathered the Rhonde and later English Roundhand
Western calligraphy
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First page of
Paul's epistle to Philemon in the Rochester Bible (12th century).
Western calligraphy
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A modern calligraphic rendition of the word calligraphy (Denis Brown, 2006)
Western calligraphy
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Page of the
Virgilius Romanus (5th century)
Western calligraphy
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Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels (c.700) contains the incipit from the
Gospel of Matthew.
12.
Abjad
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An abjad is a type of writing system where each symbol stands for a consonant, leaving the reader to supply the appropriate vowel. The name abjad is derived from pronouncing the first letters of the Arabic alphabet in order, the ordering of Arabic letters used to match that of the older Hebrew, Phoenician and Semitic alphabets, ʾ b g d. According to the formulations of Daniels, abjads differ from alphabets in that only consonants, abugidas mark the vowels with a diacritic, a minor attachment to the letter, or a standalone glyph. Some abugidas use a symbol to suppress the inherent vowel so that the consonant alone can be properly represented. In a syllabary, a grapheme denotes a syllable, that is. This caused fatal effects on terminology in general and especially in Semitic philology, the first abjad to gain widespread usage was the Phoenician abjad. Unlike other contemporary scripts, such as cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs and this made the script easy to learn, and seafaring Phoenician merchants took the script wherever they went. Phoenician gave rise to a number of new writing systems, including the Greek alphabet and Aramaic, the Greek alphabet evolved into the modern western alphabets, such as Latin and Cyrillic, while Aramaic became the ancestor of many modern abjads and abugidas of Asia. Impure abjads have characters for vowels, optional vowel diacritics. The term pure abjad refers to scripts entirely lacking in vowel indicators and this practice was at first rare and limited in scope, but it became increasingly common and more developed in later times. In the 9th century BC, the Greeks adapted the Phoenician script for use in their own language, the phonetic structure of the Greek language created too many ambiguities when the vowels went unrepresented, so the script was modified. They did not need letters for the sounds represented by aleph, he, heth or ayin. The letters waw and yod were also adapted into vowel signs, along with he, the major innovation of Greek was to dedicate these symbols exclusively and unambiguously to vowel sounds that could be combined arbitrarily with consonants. Abugidas developed along a different route. The basic consonantal symbol was considered to have an inherent a vowel sound, hooks or short lines attached to various parts of the basic letter modify the vowel. In this way, the South Arabian alphabet evolved into the Geez alphabet between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD, similarly, around the 3rd century BC, the Brāhmī script developed. The other major family of abugidas, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, was developed in the 1840s by missionary and linguist James Evans for the Cree. Evans used features of Devanagari script and Pitman shorthand to create his initial abugida, later in the 19th century, other missionaries adapted Evans system to other Canadian aboriginal languages
Abjad
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Writing systems
Abjad
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A specimen of Proto-Sinaitic script containing a phrase which may mean 'to
Baalat '. The line running from the upper left to lower right reads mt l b c lt.
13.
Hafez
–
Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, known by his pen name Hafez, was a Persian poet who lauded the joys of love and wine but also targeted religious hypocrisy. His collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran and his life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author. Hafez primarily wrote in the genre of lyric poetry that is the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems. Themes of his ghazals are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals, he deals with love, wine and tavern, all presenting the ecstasy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual worldly release or in the voice of the lover speaking of divine love. His influence in the lives of Persian speakers can be found in Hafez readings and the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages. Hafez was born in Shiraz, Iran and his parents were from Kazerun, Fars Province. Despite his profound effect on Persian life and culture and his popularity and influence. Accounts of his early life rely upon traditional anecdotes, early tazkiras mentioning Hafez are generally considered unreliable. At an early age, he memorized the Quran and was given the title of Hafez, the preface of his Divān, in which his early life is discussed, was written by an unknown contemporary whose name may have been Moḥammad Golandām. Two of the most highly regarded editions of Hafezs Divān are compiled by Moḥammad Ghazvini and Qāsem Ḡani. Modern scholars generally agree that Hafez was born either in 1315 or 1317 and his mausoleum, Hāfezieh, is located in the Musalla Gardens of Shiraz. Many semi-miraculous mythical tales were woven around Hafez after his death and it is said that by listening to his fathers recitations, Hafez had accomplished the task of learning the Quran by heart at an early age. At the same time, he is said to have known by heart the works of Rumi, Saadi, Farid ud-Din, and Nizami. According to one tradition, before meeting his patron Hajji Zayn al-Attar, Hafez had been working in a bakery, there, he first saw Shakh-e Nabat, a woman of great beauty, to whom some of his poems are addressed. Ravished by her beauty but knowing that his love for her would not be requited, still, he encountered a being of surpassing beauty who identified himself as an angel, and his further attempts at union became mystic, a pursuit of spiritual union with the divine. A Western parallel is that of Dante and Beatrice, at 60, he is said to have begun a Chilla-nashini, a 40-day-and-night vigil by sitting in a circle that he had drawn for himself. On the 40th day, he again met with Zayn al-Attar on what is known to be their fortieth anniversary and was offered a cup of wine
Hafez
–
An artistic depiction of Hafez
Hafez
–
Doublures inside a 19th-century copy of the Divān of Hafez. The front doublure shows Hafez offering his work to a
patron.
Hafez
–
Divan of Hafez, with a
Persian miniature at left and
ghazals in
nastaliq at right. Signed by Shah Qasem, 1617.
National Museum of Iran,
Tehran,
Persia.
Hafez
–
A
couplet versified by Hafez in
Nastaʿlīq.
14.
Persian language
–
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
Persian language
–
Old Persian
Persian language
–
Ferdowsi 's
Shahnameh
Persian language
–
Kalilah va Dimna, an influential work in Persian literature.
15.
Calligraphic hand
–
Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, a contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable, classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, the principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. Calligraphy pens write with nibs that may be flat, round, for some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens. There are some styles of calligraphy, like Gothic script, which require a stub nib pen, Writing ink is usually water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. Normally, light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work, ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most often ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are occasionally used. This is the case with litterea unciales, and college-ruled paper often acts as a guideline well, common calligraphy pens and brushes are, Quill Dip pen Ink brush Qalam Fountain pen Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script. The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, in the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed. As writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was more suitable for copying the Bible. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, at the height of the Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain, when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon, each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region, which are mostly cursive and hardly readable. Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the copying of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial developed from a variety of Roman bookhands, the 7th-9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Charlemagnes devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of a crowd of scribes, according to Alcuin, Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one hand from which modern booktype descends
Calligraphic hand
–
Calligraphy
Calligraphic hand
–
Calligraphy of the German word "Urkunde"(deed)
Calligraphic hand
–
Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels (c.700) contains the
incipit from the
Gospel of Matthew.
Calligraphic hand
–
Calligraphy in a
Latin Bible of 1407 on display in
Malmesbury Abbey,
Wiltshire, England. This bible was hand written in Belgium, by Gerard Brils, for reading aloud in a
monastery.
16.
Persian script
–
The Persian alphabet or Perso-Arabic alphabet is a writing system based on the Arabic script and used for the Persian language. It has four more than the Arabic alphabet, پ, چ, ژ. The Persian script is an abjad and is exclusively written cursively and that is, the majority of the letters in a word connect to each other. This is also implemented on computers, whenever the Persian alphabet is typed, the computer automatically connects the letters to each other. Words are written right to left. Also, vowels are underrepresented in writing, see below for details, the replacement of the Pahlavi scripts with the Persian alphabet in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirid dynasty in ninth century Greater Khorasan. Below are the 32 letters of the modern Persian alphabet, since the script is cursive, the appearance of a letter changes depending on its position, isolated, initial, medial, and final of a word. The names of the letter are mostly the ones used in Arabic, the only ambiguous name is he, which is used for both ﺡ and ه. For clarification, these are often called ḥe-ye jimi and he-ye do-češm, respectively. Letters which do not link to a following letter Seven letters – و, ژ, ﺯ, ﺭ, ﺫ, ﺩ, ﺍ – do not connect to a letter as the rest of the letters of the alphabet do. These seven letters have the form in isolated and initial position. For example, when the letter ا alef is at the beginning of a such as اینجا injā. Persian script has adopted a subset of Arabic diacritics which consists of zabar /æ/, zir /e/, other Arabic diacritics may be seen in Arabic loan-words. The following are not actual letters but different orthographical shapes for letters, and in the case of the lām alef, as to ﺀ hamze, it has only a single graphic, since it is never tied to a preceding or following letter. However, it is seated on a vāv, ye or alef. Technically, hamze is not a letter but a diacritic, although at first glance they may seem similar, there are many differences in the way the different languages use the alphabets. For example, similar words are written differently in Persian and Arabic, vowel notation is simple but its history is complicated. Classical Arabic has a length distinction, in writing, long vowels are normally written ambiguously by letters known as matres lectionis while short ones are normally omitted entirely
Persian script
–
Example showing the
Nastaʿlīq calligraphic style's proportion rules.
17.
Iran
–
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
Iran
–
Cave painting in Doushe cave,
Lorestan, Iran,
8th millennium BC
Iran
–
Flag
Iran
–
A depiction of the united
Medes and
Persians in
Apadana,
Persepolis
Iran
–
Ruins of the
Gate of All Nations,
Persepolis
18.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
India
–
Flag
India
–
The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
–
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
19.
Afghanistan
–
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
Afghanistan
–
History of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
–
Flag
Afghanistan
–
Bilingual (
Greek and
Aramaic)
edict by Emperor
Ashoka from the 3rd century BCE discovered in the southern city of
Kandahar
Afghanistan
–
One of the
Buddhas of Bamiyan.
Buddhism was widespread in the region before the
Islamic conquest of Afghanistan.
20.
Kashmiri language
–
Kashmiri, or Koshur, is a language from the Dardic subgroup of the Indo-Aryan languages and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley and Chenab valley of Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,527,698 speakers throughout India, according to the 1998 Census there were 132,450 Kashmiri speakers in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. According to Professor Khawaja Abdul Rehman the Kashmiri language, spoken in the Neelum Valley, is on the verge of dying out, Kashmiri is close to other Dardic languages spoken in Gilgit, Pakistan and in northern regions of Kargil, India. Outside the Dardic group, tonal aspects and loanwords of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, the Kashmiri language is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, and is a part of the eighth Schedule in the constitution of the Jammu and Kashmir. Along with other languages mentioned in the Sixth Schedule, as well as Hindi and Urdu. Most Kashmiri speakers use Urdu or English as a second language, since November 2008, the Kashmiri language has been made a compulsory subject in all schools in the Valley up to the secondary level. In 1919 George Abraham Grierson wrote that “Kashmiri is the one of the Dardic languages that has a literature”. Kashmiri literature dates back to over 750 years, this is, more-or-less, Kashmiri, like German and Old English and unlike other Indo-Aryan languages, has V2 word order. There are four cases in Kashmiri, nominative, genitive, though Kashmiri has thousands of loan words due to the arrival of Islam in the Valley, however, it remains basically an Indo-Aryan language close to Rigvedic Sanskrit. There is a difference between the Kashmiri spoken by a Hindu and a Muslim. For fire, a traditional Hindu will use the word agun while a Muslim more often use the Arabic word nar. Kashmiri has strong links to Rigvedic Sanskrit, for example, cloud is obur, rain is ruud. Kashmiri retains several features of Old Indo-Aryan that have been lost in other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, for instance, it preserves the dvi- form for prefixes in numbers which is found in Sanskrit, but has been replaced entirely by ba-/bi- in other Indo-Aryan languages. Seventy-two is dusatath in Kashmiri and dvisaptati in Sanskrit, but bahattar in Hindi-Urdu, some vocabulary features that Kashmiri preserves clearly date from the Vedic Sanskrit era and had already been lost even in Classical Sanskrit. This includes the word-form yodvai, which is found in Vedic Sanskrit texts. Classical Sanskrit and modern Indo-Aryan render the word as yadi, certain words in Kashmiri even appear to stem from Indo-Aryan even predating the Vedic period. For instance, there was an /s/ → /h/ consonant shift in some words that had occurred with Vedic Sanskrit. The word rahit in Vedic Sanskrit and modern Hindi-Urdu corresponds to rost in Kashmiri, similarly, sahit corresponds to sost in Kashmiri
Kashmiri language
–
The word "Koshur" in
Sharada script,
Perso-Arabic script and
Devanagari script
21.
Punjabi language
–
Punjabi /pʌnˈdʒɑːbi/ is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by over 100 million native speakers worldwide, making it the 10th most widely spoken language in the world. It is the language of the Punjabi people who inhabit the historical Punjab region of India. Among the Indo-European languages it is unusual in being a tonal language, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan, the 11th most widely spoken in India and the third-most spoken native language in the Indian Subcontinent. Punjabi is the fourth-most spoken language in the United Kingdom and third-most spoken native language in Canada, the language also has a significant presence in the United Arab Emirates, United States, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. The Punjabi language is written in the Shahmukhi and Gurmukhi scripts, the word Punjabi is derived from the word Panj-āb, Persian for Five Waters, referring to the five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River. Panj is cognate with Sanskrit pañca and Greek πέντε five, the historical Punjab region, now divided between India and Pakistan, is defined physiographically by the Indus River and these five tributaries. One of the five, the Beas River, is a tributary of another, Punjabi developed from Sanskrit through Prakrit language and later Apabhraṃśa From 600 BC Sanskrit gave birth to many regional languages in different parts of India. These all languages are called Prakrit language collectively, Shauraseni Prakrit was one of these Prakrit languages, which was spoken in north and north-western India and Punjabi and western dialects of Hindi developed from this Prakrit. Later in northern India Shauraseni Prakrit gave rise to Shauraseni Aparbhsha, Punjabi emerged as an Apabhramsha, a degenerated form of Prakrit, in the 7th century A. D. and became stable by the 10th century. By the 10th century, many Nath poets were associated with earlier Punjabi works, Arabic and Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent. The Persian language was introduced in the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic, many Persian and Arabic words were incorporated in Punjabi. Punjabi has more Persian and Arabic vocabulary than Bengali, Marathi, later, it was influenced by Portuguese and English, though these influences have been minor in comparison to Persian and Arabic. However, in India English words in the language are more widespread than Hindi. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan, the seventh-most widely spoken in India, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. Punjabi is the language in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Punjabi is spoken as a language by over 44. 15% of Pakistanis. About 70. 0% of the people of Pakistan speak Punjabi as either their first or second language, Lahore, the capital of the Punjab Province of Pakistan, is the largest Punjabi-speaking city in the world. 86% of the population of Lahore is native Punjabi and Islamabad
Punjabi language
–
Varan Gyan Ratnavali by 16th century historian
Bhai Gurdas
Punjabi language
–
Gurmukhi alphabetic excluding vowels.
Punjabi language
–
Administrative divisions of Punjab Pakistan
Punjabi language
–
Southall Station (United Kingdom) sign in Punjabi, in the Gurmukhī script
22.
Urdu
–
Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
Urdu
–
Autograph and a couplet of Last
Mughal Emperor,
Bahadur Shah II, dated 29 April 1844
Urdu
–
Urdu in
Perso-Arabic script (
Nastaliq style)
Urdu
–
A trilingual
signboard in the
UAE
Urdu
–
A multilingual
New Delhi railway station board
23.
Naskh (script)
–
Naskh is a specific calligraphic style for writing in the Arabic alphabet, thought to have been invented by the calligrapher Ibn Muqlah Shirazi. The root of this Arabic term nasakh-a means to copy and it either refers to the fact that it replaced its predecessor, Kufic script, or that this style allows faster copying of texts. With small modifications, it is the style most commonly used for printing Arabic, Persian, Pashto and this type of script was derived from Thuluth by introducing a number of modifications resulting in smaller size and greater delicacy. It is written using a small, very fine pen known as a cava pen, naskhi was used in copying Qurans, Delails, En-ams and Hadiths. It was also used in commentaries on the Quran and in collections of poetry and it was and is a very widely used form of script. Naskh, along with Taliq, is famous for giving rise to the Nastalīq script, the script used for writing Urdu, Persian, Punjabi, Kashmiri. Computers typically use Naskh or a Naskh-like script, for instance, ruqʿah Nastaliq Arabic, Urdu, other Arabic keyboard layouts National Language Authority
Naskh (script)
–
Al Fatihah - naskh script
24.
Pashto language
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Pashto, known in Persian literature as Afghānistani and in Urdu and Hindi literature as Paṭhānī, is the South-Central Asian language of the Pashtuns. Its speakers are called Pashtuns or Pukhtuns and sometimes Afghans or Pathans and it is an Eastern Iranian language, belonging to the Indo-European family. Pashto is one of the two languages of Afghanistan, and it is the second-largest regional language of Pakistan, mainly spoken in the west and northwest of the country. Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas are almost 100% Pashto-speaking, while it is the majority language of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pashto is the main language among the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is estimated to be 45–60 million people worldwide, Pashto belongs to the Northeastern Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch, but Ethnologue lists it as Southeastern Iranian. Pashto has two main groups, “soft” and “hard”, the latter known as Pakhto. As a national language of Afghanistan, Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, the exact numbers of speakers are unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 45–60% of the total population of Afghanistan. In Pakistan Pashto is spoken as a first language by about 15. 42% of Pakistans 170 million people and it is the main language of the Pashtun-majority regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and northern Balochistan. It is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province and in Islamabad, modern Pashto-speaking communities are found in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad in Sindh. Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in Tajikistan, and further in the Pashtun diaspora, there are also communities of Pashtun descent in the southwestern part of Jammu and Kashmir. Pashto is one of the two languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari. Since the early 18th century, all the kings of Afghanistan were ethnic Pashtuns except for Habibullah Kalakani, Persian as the literary language of the royal court was more widely used in government institutions while Pashto was spoken by the Pashtun tribes as their native tongue. Although officially strengthening the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a “sophisticated language, king Zahir Shah thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933, that both Persian and Pashto were to be studied and utilized by officials. Thus Pashto became a language, a symbol for Afghan nationalism. The status of language was reaffirmed in 1964 by the constitutional assembly when Afghan Persian was officially renamed to Dari. The lyrics of the anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto. In Pakistan, Urdu and English are the two official languages, Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the language of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Pashto language
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Pashto language on the map of Afghanistan.The brown areas speak Pashto.
Pashto language
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The word Pax̌tō written in the
Pashto alphabet
25.
Ottoman Turkish language
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Ottoman Turkish /ˈɒtəmən/, or the Ottoman language, is the variety of the Turkish language that was used in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows, in all aspects, extensively from Arabic and Persian, during the peak of Ottoman power, Persian and Arabic vocabulary accounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary, while words of Arabic origins heavily outnumbered native Turkish words. The Tanzimât era saw the application of the term Ottoman when referring to the language, nominative case, كول göl, چوربه çorba, گجه gece. Accusative case, طاوشان گترمش ṭavşan getirmiş, genitive case, answers the question كمڭ kimiñ, formed with the suffix ڭ –ıñ, –iñ, –uñ, –üñ. E. g. پاشانڭ paşanıñ from پاشا paşa, accusative case, answers the question كمى kimi and نه يى neyi, formed with the suffix ى –ı, -i, طاوشانى گترمش ṭavşanı getürmiş. The variant suffix –u, –ü does not occur in Ottoman Turkish unlike in Modern Turkish because of the lack of vowel harmony. Thus, كولى göli, but Modern Turkish has gölü, dative case, Locative case, answers the question نره ده nerede, formed with the suffix ده –de, –da, مكتبده mektebde, قفصده ḳafeṣde, باشده başda, شهرده şehirde. As with the accusative case, the variant suffix –te. Ablative case, answers the questions نره دن nereden and ندن neden, instrumental case, answers the question نه ايله ne ile. The conjugation for the aorist tense is as follows, Ottoman Turkish was highly influenced by Arabic, Arabic and Persian words in the language amounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary. From the early ages of the Ottoman Empire, borrowings from Arabic, in Ottoman, one may find whole passages in Arabic and Persian incorporated into the text. It was however not only extensive loaning of words, but along with much of the grammatical systems of Persian. A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes, with the variant being the most heavily suffused with Arabic and Persian words. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic asel to refer to honey when writing a document, historically, Ottoman Turkish was transformed in three eras, Eski Osmanlı Türkçesi, the version of Ottoman Turkish used until the 16th century. It was almost identical with the Turkish used by Seljuks and Anatolian beyliks and was regarded as part of Eski Anadolu Türkçesi. Orta Osmanlı Türkçesi or Klasik Osmanlıca, the language of poetry and it is the version of Ottoman Turkish that comes to most peoples minds. Yeni Osmanlı Türkçesi, the version shaped from the 1850s to the 20th century under the influence of journalism and it also saw the replacement of the Perso-Arabic script with the extended Latin alphabet. See the list of replaced loanwords in Turkish for more examples on Ottoman Turkish words, two examples of Arabic and two of Persian loanwords are found below
Ottoman Turkish language
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A poem about
Rumi in
Ottoman Turkish.
Ottoman Turkish language
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Calendar in
Thessaloniki 1896, a cosmopolitan city; the first 3 lines in Ottoman script
26.
Sassanid
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The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
Sassanid
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Normal domains
Sassanid
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Derafsh Kaviani
Sassanid
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Ghal'eh Dokhtar (or "The Maiden's Castle") in present-day
Fars,
Firuzabad,
Iran, built by Ardashir in 209, before he was finally able to defeat the Parthian empire.
27.
Uyghur language
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Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other countries have Uyghur-speaking expatriate communities. Uyghur belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family, like many other Turkic languages, Uyghur displays vowel harmony and agglutination, lacks noun classes or grammatical gender, and is a left-branching language with subject–object–verb word order. More distinctly Uyghur processes include, especially in dialects, vowel reduction. In addition to influence of other Turkic languages, Uyghur has historically been influenced strongly by Persian and Arabic, the modified Arabic-derived writing system is the most common and the only standard in China, although other writing systems are used for auxiliary and historical purposes. Unlike most Arabic-derived scripts, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet has mandatory marking of all due to modifications to the original Perso-Arabic script made in the 20th century. Two Latin and one Cyrillic alphabet are used, though to a much lesser extent. The Arabic and Latin alphabets both have 32 characters, the Middle Turkic languages are the direct ancestor of the Karluk languages, including Uyghur and the Uzbek language. Kagan Arik wrote that Modern Uyghur is not descended from Old Uyghur, rather, according to Gerard Clauson, Western Yugur is considered to be the true descendant of Old Uyghur, and is also called Neo-Uyghur. Modern Uyghur is not a descendant of Old Uyghur, but is descended from the Xākānī language described by Mahmud al-Kashgari in Dīwānu l-Luġat al-Turk, the Western Yugur language, although in geographic proximity, is more closely related to the Siberian Turkic languages in Siberia. Robert Dankoff wrote that the Turkic language spoken in Kashgar and used in Kara Khanid works was Karluk, robert Barkley Shaw wrote, In the Turkish of Káshghar and Yarkand. This would seem in many case to be a misnomer as applied to the language of Kashghar. Other Kara-Khanid writers wrote works in the Turki Karluk Khaqani language, yusuf Khass Hajib wrote the Kutadgu Bilig. Ahmad bin Mahmud Yukenaki wrote the Hibat al-ḥaqāyiq, after Chaghatai fell into extinction, the standard versions of Uyghur and Uzbek were developed from dialects in the Chagatai-speaking region, showing abundant Chaghatai influence. Uyghur language today shows considerable Persian influence as a result from Chagatai, Modern Uyghur religious literature includes the Taẕkirah, biographies of Islamic religious figures and saints. The Taẕkirah is a genre of literature written about Sufi Muslim saints in Altishahr, the shrines of Sufi Saints are revered in Altishahr as one of Islams essential components and the tazkirah literature reinforced the sacredness of the shrines. Anyone who does not believe in the stories of the saints is guaranteed hellfire by the tazkirahs and it is written, And those who doubt Their Holinesses the Imams will leave this world without faith, and on Judgement Day their faces will be black. In the Tazkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams, Shaw translated extracts from the Tazkiratul-Bughra on the Muslim Turki war against the infidel Khotan. The Turki-language Tadhkirah i Khwajagan was written by M. Sadiq Kashghari, historical works like the Tārīkh-i amniyya and Tārīkh-i ḥamīdi were written by Musa Sayrami
Uyghur language
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A signboard in front of the Military Museum of Xinjiang written in Uyghur (using Arabic script) and
Standard Chinese
Uyghur language
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Geographical extent of Uyghur in China
Uyghur language
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A sign in
Ghulja, Xinjiang, written in Uyghur (using Arabic script) and Chinese (both
Hanzi and
Pinyin)
Uyghur language
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Internet café in
Khotan oasis city in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Address written in Uyghur Language/
Arabic script
28.
Arabic alphabet
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The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjadiyah is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written right to left, in a cursive style. Originally, the alphabet was an abjad consisting only of consonants, as with other abjads, such as the Hebrew alphabet, scribes later devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel points. The basic Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters, there are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. Many letters look similar but are distinguished from one another by dots above or below their central part and these dots are an integral part of a letter, since they distinguish between letters that represent different sounds. For example, the Arabic letters transliterated as b and t have the basic shape, but b has one dot below, ب. Both printed and written Arabic are cursive, with most of the letters within a word connected to the adjacent letters. There are two main collating sequences for the Arabic alphabet, abjad and hija, in this order, letters are also used as numbers, Abjad numerals, and possess the same alphanumeric code/cipher as Hebrew gematria and Greek isopsephy. The hijā’ī or alifbā’ī order, used where lists of names and words are sorted, as in phonebooks, classroom lists, and dictionaries, groups letters by similarity of shape. Loss of sameḵ was compensated for by the split of shin ש into two independent Arabic letters, ش and ﺱ which moved up to take the place of sameḵ, the six other letters that do not correspond to any north Semitic letter are placed at the end. This is commonly vocalized as follows, abjad hawwaz ḥuṭṭī kalaman sa‘faṣ qarashat thakhadh ḍaẓagh, the hijā’ī order is never used as numerals. Another kind of order was used widely in the Maghreb until recently when it was replaced by the Mashriqi order. The Arabic alphabet is always cursive and letters vary in shape depending on their position within a word, letters can exhibit up to four distinct forms corresponding to an initial, medial, final, or isolated position. While some letters show considerable variations, others remain almost identical across all four positions, generally, letters in the same word are linked together on both sides by short horizontal lines, but six letters can only be linked to their preceding letter. For example, أرارات has only isolated forms because each letter cannot be connected to its following one, in addition, some letter combinations are written as ligatures, notably lām-alif. Notes See the article Romanization of Arabic for details on various schemes, however. Also names are transcribed as pronounced locally, not as pronounced in Literary Arabic. Regarding pronunciation, the values given are those of Modern Standard Arabic
Arabic alphabet
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Calligraphy
Arabic alphabet
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as the sole official script
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