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Some caveats
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kfi is extinct.vii Contemporary calligraphers can only guess how the ancient calligraphers constructed the letters.viii Moreover, on the scholarly side,
no complete description of the early Arabic writing system or systems exists.ix Not one publication mentions, let alone describes, the dissimilation
rules that are typical of all Arabic manuscript styles including kfi.
Dissimilation is a graphic technique that appears to have been designed
to improve the legibility of Arabic letter fusions. A fusion is the linking and
assimilating of a letter block into a single script unit. In a fusion, the abstract
graphemes that make up a letter block are visualised by allographs. In those
cases where assimilation leads to ambiguities, dissimilation is applied, which
implies the use of context-determined allographs. This pattern is just as
regular as the basic break-down in initial, middle, final and unconnected
forms and apparently without exception. Consequently it can be called the
dissimilation rule. x
Dissimilation as a distinctive feature is critical for disambiguating
groups of 4 or more B stubs and for identifying S archigraphemes:
The archigrapheme S is characterized by stub triplets, over
whose tops a virtual straight
line can be drawn (added ex- -SBplicitly by the author, here and
in the first example BSA below).
GSBH
distinctive feature:
BSA
distinctive feature:
BS-
BS-
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BB
distinctive feature:
BBY
BB-
B-
BB-
la nubayyitannahu
LBBBBBH
distinctive feature:
-BBBBB-
499
SA
BBBA
S-
BBB-
initial form
followed by sloping twins
BBS
dissimilation from S
by sloping twin in initial position
BBS
LBBS
-BBS
SBBLY
Sloping twin,
in middle position.
Note that the Y has no bridge,
instead it assimilates vertically
to vertical letters like L.
GSBBM
SBB-
sloping twins
In this sloping twin dissimilation system, the letter block LLH receives completely regular treatment. The rules apply independently of the word which
is written with it:
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BBH
LLH
LLD
LLH
The second generation mansb or proportionate scripts inherits the dissimilation system, but the rules are different. The method of sloping twin dissimilation is discontinued:
BBH
LLH
LLD
LLH
Only when the letter blocks LLH and FLLH are used to denote Allah, they
retain the first-generation feature of sloping twin dissimilation, along with
the more compact shape of lm typical of the early scripts. The resulting
specialized theograph adds to the second generation of scripts a novel
functional contrast to the writing system that can be classified as a kfism:
theograph
LLH
501
F + theograph
FLLH
fa li l-lhi
qallalahu
LLD
BBD
Therefore, in early script, the letter block LLH receives completely regular
treatment independent of the word which is written with it:xi
L_LH
LL_H
LLH
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However, in the second generation scripts, L, including the lm of God, cannot generate an elongated connection, therefore shape variation by means of
elongation is ruled out:
theograph
503
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BKSBW
BBD
BK
BBD
505
4. Final Remarks
The EI2 article Computers and the Qurn continues:
The pages of the Qurn need only be scanned and preserved as images or, alternatively, scanned and then encoded according to one of
these standards using Optical Character Reader (OCR) software.
Given the incomplete code set coverage of the Qurn, this paragraph unintentionally proposes what amounts to a breach of scholarly integrity be it
an innocent one as long as there exists no OCR that can do the job anyway.
While straightforward image digitization scanning - is primitive, it is at
least not corrupt. However, given the fact that ASMO449 and ISO8859 (and
dozens of alternatives) are not designed to cover the Qurn and that its
coverage by Unicode is still incomplete and ambivalent, it is impossible to
encode the Qurn without tampering with the text. Doing so regardless
invalidates research before it is even started, as it will be based on unreliable
text.
Still quoting Computers and the Qurn:
Many such electronic versions of the Qurn already exist Nor
does digitizing the Qurn present any significant theological difficulty.
Apart from the theological implications, the situation sketched above should
alarm any academic researcher. And, in fact, it does. In the quoted text Andrew Rippin remarks about e-texts and their scholarly use:
The basic inaccuracy of the available texts is certainly problematic.
This manifests itself in a number of ways: simple textual errors, unexplained textual changes, and lack of clarification in text-comprehension matters and in text-critical matters.
But there is more: even if every single grapheme attested in a particular type
of Qurn recension, or any early manuscript for that matter, were covered
by the Unicode Arabic character set, serious problems remain. For instance,
the latest version of the Unicode standard (5.1, 2008) defines y without
dots (U+0649) as a continuous letter with four-fold assimilation. Yet some
fonts still program the alif maqr to disconnect in non-final position:
their designers are unaware the qurnic occurrence of y without dots in
initial or middle position (OCR programs work on the same assumption and
will therefore fail). Others provide four-fold assimilation, but with erroneous dots in the non-final position. And, of course, a few fonts actually comply with the standard.
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SELECTED LITERATURE
Abbott, N., (1939), The Rise of the North Arabic Script and its urnic
Development, Chicago
Blair, S., (2006), Islamic Calligraphy, Edinburgh
Dammen McAuliffe, J., General Editor, (2001), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume One A-D, Leiden
Droche, F., (1992), The Abbasid Tradition: Qur'ans of the 8th to the 10th
Centuries AD, Oxford
Droche, F., (2005), Islamic Codicology, an Introduction to the Study of
Manuscripts in Arabic Script, Oxford
Endress, G., (1982), Herkunft und Entwicklung der arabischen Schrift, in:
Grundriss der arabischen Philologie, Band I Sprachwissenschaft
Fendall, R., (2003), Islamic Calligraphy, Sam Fogg Catalogue 27
Flury, S., (1920), Islamische Schriftbnder Amida-Diarbekr
Fraser, M. and Kwiatkowsky, W., (2006), Ink and Gold, Islamic Calligraphy,
Sam Fogg Catalogue, London
Fud Sayyid, A., (1997), al-Kitb al-Arab l-Ma wa Ilm al-Mat
Grohmann, A., (1967-1971) Arabische Palographie, Band I/II
Gruendler, B., (1993),The Development of the Arabic Scripts
um, I., (1969), Dirs f Taawwur al-Kitbt al-Kfiyy, al l-Ar f
Mir f l-Qurn al-ams l-l li l-Hir, Cairo
Jeffery, A., (1938), The foreign Vocabulary of the Qurn, republished Leiden, 2007
Lions, J., (1968), Introduction to General Linguistics, Cambridge
Lling, G, (1974), ber den Ur-Qurn, Erlangen
Milo, T., (1989), Fragments from the Koran, in: Design into Art Drawings
for Architecture and Ornament The Lodewijk Houthakker
Collection, Volume II, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, republished in: Mela Notes, No 62, 1534, as The Koran Fragments of the The Lodewijk Houthakker Collection (1995),
Milo, T., (2002), Authentic Arabic: a Case Study. Right-to-Left Font Structure, Font Design, and Typography, in: Manuscripta Orientalia, 8, No. 1, 4961
508
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ANNEX I
Archigraphemic transliteration scheme for Arabic
Arabic
archigraphemic
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ANNEX II
The archigraphemic transliteration scheme in practice
-
Above let:
Close-up of fragment from an manuscript
A2-15-15. Most of the script grammatical
examples are taken from this manuscript.
Below:
Text with full paedagogical tawd markings,
in the recension of af an im as published
in the 1924 Cairo Qurn (page 366, lines 1-5,
Q17:12-14). he text appearing on the fragment
above is marked in black.
his version is typeset with the computer
model of nas competence in classic Ottoman
performance made by the author as member of
the DecoType team.
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Above right:
Archigraphemic transliteration with second-generation
pln spelling with alif marked as a dimmed letter a.
Below:
Fragment of the authors archigraphemic reduction of
the complete Cairo 1924 Qurn, in the af an im
recension. It results in pre-hamz spelling throughout,
i.e., with alif still in its original role of representing glottal
stop, in addition the function of marking tanwn and
plural forms (otiose alef).
Note in the 1924 Cairo edition the seemingly random return to Urtext by replacing alif awl with
superscript alif. Ottoman Qurns have alif awl in most cases, whereas the inferred Urtext has none.
Comparison with the Urtext reference model proves that this manuscript fragment is younger than the
austere, archaic script suggests: its spelling uses alif awl even in places where the editors of the 1924 Cairo
Qurn removed it. In fact, in this manuscript fragment only the letter block blfbh is spelled in the archaic,
oldest attested orthography. This text skeleton appears to be identical to that of Ottoman Qurns.
511
NOTES
i
ii
iii
iv
ALEF-FATHA-LAM-LAM-HEH-DAMMA
HEH-DAMMA
incomplete vowels
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vi
Without diacritic markers, early Arabic orthography becomes multiinterpretable. In this kind of spelling the skeletons are not defective
graphemes, but valid archigraphemes. The majority of historic texts are
written with archigraphemes. Unicode does not yet have the data
structure to deal with archigraphemes and discrete markers as meaningful text elements.
vii
Even the name is problematic. See Nabil Safwat: these early scripts
were not known as Kufic, and indeed were not called Kufic. The city of
Kufa had almost nothing to do with the formation of these scripts and
Thanoon (quoting Yousuf Thanoun, Old and New in the Origin of Arabic Script and its Development in Various Ages in Al-Mawrid, a Quarterly Journal of Culture And Heritage, Vol 15, nr 4, Ministry of Culture
and Information, Baghdad 1986) argued that the term Kufic betrayed
dated knowledge (italics by TM) of Islamic calligraphy. (Nabil Safwat,
513
The Harmony of Letters, Islamic Calligraphy from the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait 1977).
viii
ix
Gnter Lling 1974, page 381, bases a key argument on the unfounded
claim that the unpointed and therefore archigraphemic letter blocks
(rasm) underlying the Arabic words tis nine and sab seven are
exactly identical. This routine assumption has never been proven and
contradicts the findings of this essay. It is therefore interesting that the
opponents of the resulting radically different reading of Q74:30 (alayh
sabta auri-n on it seven gates[of hell] instead of alayh tista
aara over it [are] nineteen [guardian angels] never pointed out that
no manuscript evidence exists in support of this theory. All manuscripts
meticulously execute Arabic script grammar to disambiguate such text
skeletons. On the other hand, proponents of this approach overlook the
implications of Llings argument: that the ambiguity apparently must
have existed in a much earlier, as yet unattested phase of the emerging
text when this aspect of Arabic scrip grammar did not yet exist.
xi
Page 26 of Abbott 1939 discusses the letter block LLH in general terms of
the underlying script grammar, but she calls it the treatment of the word
Allh. On the other hand, in the Qurn the unconnected letter block
LLH occurs exclusively as part of the spelling of al-lhu. However, the letter block LLH does not behave differently than other, enclosed groups of
LLH occurring in this text such as, e.g., LCLLH /-allta/, BCLLH
/yulilhu/.
xii
xiii
514
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xvi
xvii
Droche 1992, page 16 writes: the descriptions should merely draw the
readers attention to the salient features of the script.
xviii
The script tables in Droche 1992, e.g., on page 38, structurally omit kf
and dl.
xix
515
(Taken from Arabic Calligraphy Instruction, The letter Kaf in Kufi scripts.
http://www.sakkal.com/instrctn/Kaf01.gif
http://www.sakkal.com/instrctn/Kufi_Kaf.html)
A possible cause for this confusion is that in the second generation
scripts, besides the modern shortened kf, a stretched kf is available as a
calligraphic alternative. This surviving kfi kf is based on the shape
shared by non-final kf and dl in early Arabic, but since it no longer
needs a contrastive opposition with dl, the use of the vertical bar is not
known. The apparent reluctance among later calligraphers to use the
stretched kf in final position may be related to this. Like the theograph,
stretched kf, too, can be considered a kufism.
xx
xxi