I neither speak nor read Arabic. The script used for the opening credits struck me as particularly beautiful, but I don't know if that's just my lack of exposure to Arabic text/ graphics. Does Arabic have different graphic fonts like European and English languages have? Was the text used for the credits- the equivalent of hand-designed calligraphy in English text? like one-of-a-kind art? thanks for the education.
shareWell what you saw was not Arabic. It is known as Persian calligraphy :)
Arabic calligraphy (or rather Islamic calligraphy) has been influenced greatly by Persian calligraphy, I guess you could say Persian calligraphy is the inspiration for it.
Not sure if that answered your question, but hopefully it did.
:)
thank you for the correction and the info. but no, that doesn't answer my question. A 'font' is a style of letters. for instance , on your PC you might have a choice of Times-Roman or Ariel or Garamond etc etc in which your PC messages will appear. do you know what I mean?
so i'm wondering if persian has different fonts as well. I can't imagine that every time something is written in Persian, it has to be hand calligraphied...
Your books and newspapers and magazines- doesn't each one have a different style/ visual look/ font for its text?
Now now, I don't want to start a flame war, but the info you got was wrong, however well-intentioned. Don't worry, I'll get to answering your question after clearing a few points.
First, Arabic calligraphy is not ''Islamic calligraphy'' by virtue of being Arabic. True, the art of calligraphy in Arabic has been heavily tied with religion (adorning Qu'rans, mosques, etc.), but saying that the art form is exclusively ''Islamic'' is a bit foolish as it has been and is being used in secular settings, though admittedly to a lesser extent than Persian.
Second, Persian is written with Arabic characters (with a few additions for sounds not present in Arabic), and not the other way around. The script was thus adapted to the language (in fact, Persian, as an Indo-European language, is in ill-suited to that (Semitic) script) and Persian in this script appears only several centuries after the first Arabic examples. Because of ignorance, a very strong feeling of cultural superiority, or an allergy to anything Arabic, some Iranians are apparently loath to recognize the fact that the Arabic script is...Arabic and was naturally adopted in the lands that Arabs conquered and which eventually became predominantly Islamic/Muslim (including Iran, but also (pre-modern) Turkey, (modern) Pakistan and many others) and was written in this script before Persian.
So about your question. Yes indeed, Persian is mostly written using printed fonts derived from hand-written models. There are various calligraphic styles used in print, from plain and easy to read to very intricate almost impossible to decipher except by the trained eye. Iranians developped many calligraphic styles of their own, like ''shekasteh'' and ''nastaligh'' wich are both widely used in print and in handwriting (in the latter case in simplified forms). Unlike the latin script today, the Arabo-Persian script can be written in widely different ways, and one has to be trained to be able to read some of them. Most books are printed in ''naskh'', which is a very simple (Arabic;)) and regular style of writing. Iranians however, contrary to, say, Europeans or Americans still care deeply about the appearance of the written word, and ornate calligraphy regularly appears in most media. In certain cases, it is almost the norm (eg. poetry books are regularly written in the ''nastaligh'' script, which is the one that appears in the movie). Now, as far as fonts are concerned, they do exist, but most of them are variations on certain basic traditional calligraphic styles.
Hope this long winded answer clears things up a bit and (most importantly) answers your question !
Thank you so much for taking your time to educate me.The nastaligh script is soooooo beautiful; it is just a work of art unto itself.I plan to see The Willow again soon because I want to study it further, and then I will spend more time admiring the credits. Maybe some day when I'm appreciating the excellent collection of Middle Eastern art at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (where I live), I'll be lucky enough to see someone studying a piece of art containing calligraphy and I'll ask them to educate me further! Again, thank you for your articulate explanation and your generosity.
Ad hoc, Ad loc, Quid pro queeee,
So little time and so much to see
and psellus is an angry Arab
so is it Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf?
if you're educated, you know the correct answer
and the Persian style of calligraphy dates back to Zoroastrianism, but you're right that Iran uses the Arabic alphabet...but the calligraphy style is PERSIAN.
let's make it simple for you to understand, because there is really no debate here; it's like if i use your beloved pita bread to make something new out of it let's say i add a lot of new ingredients...that bread becomes a Persian bread, although the basis (bread) is from an Arabic culture.
Iranians are just proud, I think the hatred comes from your side.
gee whiz,epic.,as we say in the u.s. what IS your problem??? who said anything about hatred here? man, you are so quick to get angry and nasty, it's no wonder someone might be afraid of you.
We are having a perfectly respectful unemotional discussion about the history of a beautiful written language and how that written language's forms are used today. You, epic., Go take a long long run and work out all that anger of yours.
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
Lol @ this Persian vs Arab internet war lolll so cliche
sharepsellus, your extensive answer is most appreciated though some of the the issues
still confuse me. Persian calligraphy is only used in Iran? Arabic calligraphy ("most books") is used in all the other countries of the Islamic world? And Persian calligraphy was an embellished outgrowth of Arabic calligraphy?
So if I see a Turkish, Egyptian, Tunisian, Pakistani film, the calligraphy is likely arabic?
when i see script/calligraphy, how should i refer to it- since i, at this point, do not know the visual difference between persian and non-persian script/calligraphy? should i call it arabo-persian calligraphy? or arabic script?
Do you think that in the area now called persia/iran, was persian calligraphy preceded by cuneiform , 'written' on stone?and did the arabic alphabet/script/calligraphy begin with the first writings on skins and 'paper' (the paper more easily supporting the creation of elegant swirling lines etc)?
Thanks so much again!
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
psellus, your extensive answer is most appreciated though some of the the issues
still confuse me. Persian calligraphy is only used in Iran? Arabic calligraphy ("most books") is used in all the other countries of the Islamic world? And Persian calligraphy was an embellished outgrowth of Arabic script/calligraphy?
So if I see an Egyptian, Tunisian, Pakistani film, the calligraphy is likely arabic?( i have just spent the last 1.5 hours reading various wikipedia articles on the arabic alphabet and language, and the persian language, so i learned that turkey uses our alphabet.)
when i see script/calligraphy, how should i refer to it- since i, at this point, do not know the visual difference between persian and non-persian script/calligraphy? should i call it arabo-persian calligraphy? or arabic script?
i don't think i'm aware of any language more complex that arabic and persian. having to learn 4 different alphabets just seems soooo difficult. i wonder what caused the early language encoders to make it so complex........
Thanks so much again!
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.