The Evolution and Adaptation of the Arabic Script

Written by Amir Mahdi Moslehi

he Arabic script stands as one of the most enduring and influential writing systems in human history. It has served not only as the primary means of recording religious texts but also as a vital cultural and artistic symbol across diverse regions. Its development reflects a complex interplay of regional aesthetics, linguistic structures, and technological innovations. From its earliest Kufic origins to the development of six proportioned calligraphic styles—including Naskh—the script has continuously adapted to meet the needs of its users, resulting in a rich tradition of calligraphy.

This essay explores the evolution of the Arabic script by first examining its origins and the development of various calligraphic styles, with a focus on how regional influences have shaped these forms. It then investigates regional variations across the Islamicate societies—such as North African, Persian, and Ottoman calligraphy—highlighting how linguistic and cultural differences have influenced script forms and reading practices. Special attention is given to the modifications that non-Arabic languages like Persian and Urdu have made to the script to accommodate their unique phonetic and aesthetic requirements, thus contributing to the diverse orthographies and calligraphic conventions within the Eastern narratives of the Arabic script.

Furthermore, the essay analyzes orthographic and formal variations—such as letter proportions, diacritical marks, and layout textures—that define regional distinctions and impact readability and visual identity. An examination of the influence of historical empires, particularly the Safavid and Ottoman, reveals how these political entities shaped distinct calligraphic traditions that continue into modern typography.

In addition, the transition from traditional calligraphy to digital fonts introduces new challenges and opportunities. This study showcases the design process behind the Persian version of Pangea Arabic, a contemporary typeface by Christoph Koeberlin and Azza Alameddine rooted in Western narrative traditions of Arabic script. Modifications to key letters—such as Meem, Seen, Heh, Yā, and Waw—were carefully implemented to better accommodate Persian orthography and aesthetic conventions. This process exemplifies how culturally informed adjustments are essential in creating digital fonts that are both contemporary and respectful of manuscript cultures.

The text highlights the importance of understanding the historical, cultural, and linguistic factors that have shaped Arabic script. Thoughtful typographical adaptations, such as those made in the development of the Persian version of Pangea Arabic, are vital for preserving tradition and reader acceptance while embracing technological progress.

Development of Calligraphic Styles

In the early Islamic centuries, the predominant script style was Kufic, mainly used for Quranic and religious texts under state patronage. During the Abbasid period, a more cursive style known as the round script emerged, laying the foundation for various contemporary calligraphic styles such as Naskh. The round script introduced curved elements into Arabic letterforms, transforming the visual texture from predominantly horizontal and linear to more rounded and open, aligning the letterforms with natural writing movements. This style later became the basis for the development of a proportioned script system known as the standardized six Islamic scripts, which include: Moḥaqqaq, Rayḥān, Thuluth, Naskh, Tōqīʿ, and Riqāʿ. Each was optimized for different purposes—Naskh being the most common for texts due to its readability and versatility, and Thuluth preferred for titles and inscriptions because of its features that facilitate elaborate calligraphic compositions.

Regional Variations and Adaptations

Due to diverse cultural influences across regions, each area adapted the scripts to suit its own aesthetic and functional needs. For example, North African Naskh exhibits differences from Persian or Indo-Pakistani Naskh—not only in form but also in specific letter shapes. For instance, the final form of the letter Yā in Maghrebi Naskh has a tooth-like terminal, reflecting regional calligraphic traditions. Additionally, certain letters, such as the initial and medial forms of Sād, are written without the tooth in Maghrebi Naskh, a feature not present in eastern interpretations of the Arabic script. An example of this regional influence today is the Tahoma Arabic typeface, which was designed with Maghrebi features. However, it is less favoured among Persian users because it does not align well with local writing conventions.

Regions influenced by Islamic civilization are not all Arabic-speaking, although Arabic was the official language of science and governance in the early centuries of Islam. Among these, Iran and the Persian language are significant in the development and refinement of the Arabic script; moreover, Persian was one of the first languages into which the Quran was translated. Since pre-Islamic civilization in Iran was rich in historical culture and written tradition, the arrival of Islam and the Arabic language and script into this society occurred through a different cultural and historical lens. The linguistic differences between Persian and Arabic also play a major role in the variations in reading the Arabic script in Iran and eastern lands such as India and later Pakistan, compared to other Arab countries.

Persian, like Urdu, belongs to the Indo-European language family, whereas Arabic is classified within the Semitic languages. In this regard, the syntax of Persian is entirely different from that of Arabic, resulting in distinct structural characteristics in written texts. For example, Persian and Urdu do not use separate definite articles, whereas the definite articles “Alif” (الف) and “Lam” (لام) in Arabic, placed before nouns, create a vertical rhythm within the text. Additionally, words in Arabic tend to be longer than in Persian. The greater length of Arabic words causes Arabic texts to appear more cohesive and aligned along the horizontal baseline. In contrast, words in Persian are often more fragmented, creating more blank spaces within the text compared to Arabic.

Therefore, Iranian scribes, based on these differences—primarily related to the texture of the text—gradually adapted calligraphic interpretations to the Arabic script, such as Naskh, in a way that achieved better compatibility and yielded improved results when used for Persian texts.

Regional Divergence and Modern Variations

After the formation of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey and the Safavid Empire in Iran as two major powers of the Islamic world in the 16th and 17th centuries CE, two different calligraphic traditions of Arabic script emerged, whose influence is still felt today. For example, the Naskh style and other Islamic pens forms in the Ottoman Empire exhibit different components and proportions compared to the Naskh style in Iran of that period. In Ottoman Naskh, the letters tend to be inclined, whereas in Persian Naskh, the letters are more vertical and upright. Ottoman Naskh features clear skeletal structures in the letters, with noticeable changes in stroke breaks and angularity, while Persian Naskh employs softer, broader strokes that smooth out letter details and create more uniform thickness in the curves.

Overall, Persian Naskh tends to be softer, more rounded, and more spacious within the letters, partly due to larger bowls in the letter shapes that create more white space. The Naskh style in Pakistan is even more spaced out than Persian Naskh, closely aligning with natural hand movements during writing, reflecting less calligraphic complexity and resembling more of a handwritten style. As a result, the range of Naskh style interpretations shifted from the Western Islamic lands— heritage of Ottoman calligraphy school—to the eastern regions, becoming more fluid and smoothly executed.

Among the elements that reveal differences in formal preferences and the duality between flattened and fluid letterforms is the contrast between the common handwriting styles in the West and the East of the Islamic lands. The Ruqʿah style is the predominant handwritten style in the western regions. In this style, the letters are set on a slanted baseline, with abstracted strokes and minimal curves, created using a straight pen movement. The strokes in Ruqʿah are simple and straight, resulting in a text with a linear and tightly controlled texture, confined within the upper and lower bounds of the line. The letters and words are enclosed within a rectangular frame and aligned side by side.

However, in the eastern regions of the Arabic script, the Nastaʿlīq style is the dominant handwriting tradition. As previously mentioned, Nastaʿlīq lacks straight lines, and compared to other Islamic calligraphic styles, its letter shapes are more fluid and curved. In Nastaʿlīq, words blend into one another, and to achieve a balanced composition on a single line, the letters and words are shifted relative to the horizontal baseline. Consequently, the texture of text written in Nastaʿlīq appears thinner than in Ruqʿah, with more negative space, and due to the rounded forms and cascading arrangement of the letters, its overall texture is more fluid and free. As noted earlier, these differences in writing culture are influenced both by linguistic distinctions and by aesthetic preferences specific to these two regions of the Arabic script.

In summary, these are some of the formal differences that characterize the reading of Arabic script among Western and Eastern users:

• The absence of the definite articles “Alif” and “Lam” in Persian and Urdu reduces the vertical rhythm in texts written in these languages.
• Due to aesthetic preferences and orthographic differences, the bowls of letters such as Nūn (ن), Yā (ي), and Ḥā (ح) are rendered larger and more extended.
• Eastern Naskh has proportionally larger and more flowing forms compared to Western Naskh.