Kufic

The Kufic script is one of the oldest calligraphic form of the Arabic script and therefore neither an independent nor an alphabet font. It is named after the city of Kufa, which is in Iraq today. Here was a college, in which the Scripture was mainly used by copyists and calligraphers.

From early on developed a monumental script, which is steep and geometric. Although originally a monument script, it was used after the advent of Islam in the Qur'an, which remained until the 10th century so. It was only in the 12th century, the use of this written form as coins and monumental writing took off again.

The Kufic script, the slurring of the letters does not go quite as far as in the later Nashi script, which is the most common form of the Arabic script today. The Kufic script, however, often lack even the diacritical marks (points, arab. Ǧām i ʿ ) to distinguish look-alike letters that only the time of Caliph 'Abd al -Malik ibn Marwan ( 685-705 ) were first introduced for the Koran. Thus, the reading of this specification is still more ambiguous than the other consonants writings.

Square Kufic

Square Kufic is a highly simplified version of the font that is used for example to decorate verkachelter facades in Islamic architecture. The resulting geometric pattern consists of repetitions of names like Allah, Muhammad and Ali. But even longer texts are sometimes written in square Kufic; they are often difficult to decipher.