A brief introduction to the types of Arab characters

Arab culture is based primarily on the Koran-the sacred book of Muslims. Due to the fact that Islam-the youngest of the world religions, the number of characters with special implications are less than, for example, in Christianity. Most of the Arab characters in one way or another connected with religion mentioned in the Quran or the comments to it, but there are other sources: science, historical events, borrowing.

General remarks

The Arabic characters are often abstract, as in accordance with the laws of Islam graphic and sculptural images of animals and people is strictly prohibited. For this reason, a significant part of the symbolic images, distributed in Europe for a long time was not welcomed and was not clear in the Arab world.

However, over time norms concerning the representation of animals was somewhat mitigated: for example, in the Arabic calligraphy you can find pictures of lions, eagles and other animals.

Overall, among the Arab characters we can distinguish three particularly interesting categories: letters, numbers, and stylized imagery, with a special connotation.

The Script

Among the Arab characters are very important letters. For more than a thousand years of existence of this culture had produced a whole lot of ways of writing letters, ranging from fonts like Gothic and ending with such, which is unique in European culture to lead is impossible.

For many centuries have been developed in the East the art of calligraphy – no wonder there is the expression “Arabic”, because sometimes the letters are intertwined, forming a true pattern, where an observer may not recognize the writing.

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The Letters which in the alphabet there are 28 decorated walls of mosques, books, clothing. Within Arab culture there is a natural flow in which each letter has its own inner meaning, linking it with a particular planet, element, number. This approach has much in common with alchemy, the name of which, incidentally, also originated from Arabic.

Figures

Arabic numerals-the symbols to denote numbers that are used to record the quantitative characteristics of objects and work with them. They represent abstract concepts and were developed in the historical period of mankind's existence.

Arabic numerals important way differ, for example, from the Roman. The source of the last served iconism: one object-one dash, two objects-two lines. Arab figures are purely symbolic and require less space to write, faster to carry out mathematical operations. In addition, in this system there is the concept of zero, which was an important milestone in the history of mathematics.

However, it should be noted that these figures came from India, where he was taken in the era of the “Golden age" Arab civilization. The merit of the Arabs consists primarily in the fact that they took the achievements of other cultures and developed them, extending around the world.

Images

Perhaps the most famous image among the Arab characters – a Crescent.

There are many hypotheses of the origin of this symbol, however, there are reliable facts. In the period of the emergence and development of Islam the Crescent moon were used on the banners and flags, when making any religious buildings. In battle, flags served as a one-color paintings, associated today with colors of Islam – green, black and white.

Only much later, in the XV century, when the Ottoman Turks had taken Constantinople, a sign of the city - a Crescent with a star - penetrated Muslim culture and turned into the Arabic character, having originally as a sign of the Ottoman Empire, and later – and Islam in General.

The Second characteristic associated with the East, is the widespread use of ornaments.

Ornament

Among the Arab characters should be mentioned two species of ornamental patterns: geometric and floral.

In the first case the pattern is formed by the intersection of geometric shapes, each of which has its own symbolic meaning. Images are “obsession”, i.e. the same fragment could be repeated countless times in all directions. Such paintings often adorn the domes of mosques and minarets - they are designed to remind people of the hills spiritual and divine.

Plant the ornament often used in the design of small architectural forms and ceramics. These patterns focus on the parts of the world, bringing together thus of man and nature.

In conclusion

A Careful examination of Arabic symbols and their meanings as symbols of any other culture – it is laborious and time consuming. However, after a superficial acquaintance with the East becomes clear – no matter how much time took the study, the learning process will be interesting and will cause a lot of positive emotions.