Naskh font in Arabic Calligraphy

Naskh (نسخ, also known as Naskhi or by its Turkish name Nesih, from Arabic نسخ) is a specific calligraphic style for writing in the Arabic alphabet, thought to be invented by Ibn Muqlah. The root of this Arabic term نسخ nasakha means “to abolish, abrogate” and “to copy”. 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 (Farsi), Pashto, et al.

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, which makes the script eminently suitable for use in book production. Naskhi was used in copying Qur’ans and Hadeeths. It was also used in commentaries on the Qur’an (Tafseer) and in collections of poetry (Diwan). It was and is a very widely used form of script.

Naskh, along with Ta’liq, is also famous for giving rise to the Nasta’leeq script, the script used for writing Urdu, Persian, Kashmiri and sometimes Pashto and Uyghur (Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China. Communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in Mongolia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Russia and Taoyuan County of Hunan province in south-central Mainland China). Back to naskhi script… Computers typically use Naskh or a Naskh-like script, for instance: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم (the Bismillah).

You might also want to read...:

1. Thuluth font in Arabic Calligraphy Thuluth (Arabic: ثلث “one-third”, Turkish: Sülüs) is a script variety of Islamic calligraphy, which made its first appearance in the 11th century CE (fourth century of the Hijrah). The straight angular forms of Kufic were replaced in the new script by curved and oblique lines. In Thuluth, one-third of each...
2. Nabi Muhammad (SAW) in Calligraphy The Arabic script was not greatly developed in the pre-Islamic era; it was not used much at this time because the Arabs usually committed things to memory. For this reason, the development of the Arabic script started with the advent Islam, when the Qur’an began to be revealed, and with...
3. The Arabic Language Arabic Arabic has been the language of Islam since the 7th century. It is classified as a member of the semitic language family. It is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. During the middle ages it was a vehicle for scientific and philosophical culture. As a result many European languages have...