Arabic, Persian, Turkish, & Islamic Calligraphy & Illumination

On this website you'll find a variety of interactiv e tools and informatio n to help you learn more about calligraph y in the Arab, Ottoman and Persian traditions .

Combining innovative styles, techniques, and forms with previously adapted ones, early medieval art is often marked by strong regional characteristics. Compared with early Islamic art, works of art from this period make much greater use of figural decoration and forms

An online exhibit of Arabic books and manuscripts.

Fostered by the Mongol invasions of the mid-thirteenth century, and inculcated with a new taste, especially for Chinese decorative motifs, a veritable artistic explosion in this period was disseminated throughout Islamic lands. This was a time of brilliant creativity, in which certain preexisting techniques reached their greatest heights and fresh modes of artistic expression were invented.

Illustrations and notes from 16th and 17th century Persian manuscripts.

Short overview with links. Part of the Art Arena's Iransaga site.

During the late 1920s, early 1930s, and 1990s the Library of Congress acquired a large collection of Arabic script calligraphy sheets. This presentation exhibits 355 Arabic calligraphy sheets, ranging from the 9th to the 19th centuries. A majority of the calligraphy sheets were written on paper, however, a group of Qur’anic fragments from the 9th and 10th centuries were executed on parchment.

Calligraphy was a skill to be mastered, and it was heavily used to express religious sentiment and many other aspects of personal and cultural life. This collection showcases stunning examples of calligraphic art. In addition to the individual calligraphy sheets, this presentation includes essays on Ottoman and Persian calligraphic styles, an in-depth look at Qur'anic calligraphic fragments, and an essay discussing some of the Library's notable Arabic script calligraphy sheets and illuminations.

An online exhibit from the BNF of Persian illuminated manuscripts from the 12th-17th centuries, offering a complete panorama of the art of the Persian book.

When the Topkap² Palace, the home of the Ottoman sultans and the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire for four hundred years, was turned into a museum in 1924, the manuscripts, found in many pavilions and rooms, were gathered together to form the New Library. Today, the Islamic manuscripts preserved in this new library have been sorted out into categories of Arabic, Farsi and Turkish.

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

The principal objectives of the WDL are to:
Promote international and intercultural understanding;
Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.