Ibn Muqla, vizier, scribe, calligrapher?

　The period of the Abbasid dynasty was the development of Islamic culture. Followed the Umayyad dynasty the political administration was organized and the benefits of the country became enormous which was enough to led intense political competition among the bureaucrats, and there were at the same time the large number of the case of the political success and failure. On the other hand, the cultural growth if Islam, especially calligraphy, bloomed with introducing new systemized style which would be used until today.

Naskhhttp://islamic-arts.org/2011/ibn-muqla/             

  Abu ‘ali Muhammad Ibn ‘Ali, known as Ibn Muqla, was a man who survived the intense political competition in the Abbasid Bureaucracy and achieved great successes in those days administration with three times assumptions of the vizier which is the highest political post in the organization. His name appeared in history of the Abbasid dynasty when he was sixteen years old as the bureau of the official documents which was called diwan. Because the diwan dealt with the correspondences of the financial reports and revenues, his post was surrounded the a lot of opportunities to accumulate the power and the political connection which came from the bribe offers and corruptions. Ibn Mulqa had a great ambition which was enough to benefit from such relationships, as a result he became the representative of one of the diwan section and the head of the state library when he was thirties, and finally in 928 when he was forty three years old, the then caliph al-Muqtadir nominated him as the vizier. Until 936, he experienced same position under the order of different rulers. However even though he appointed to the vizier three times, the terms of office did not last long time compare to other viziers. One huge reason is the intenseness of the competition to get the post among the bureaucrats. It goes without saying that the vizier is the highest position in the administration of the Abbasid dynasty and the gain which the vizier will receive was enormous. At the same time there were huge political risks, for example he was imprisoned three times because of other bureaucrat’s ambition and the turnover of his post due to the turnover of the caliph. During the one of the imprisonment, he lost his right hand and tongue by political rival and finally he ended his life in prison. (Robinson, 2016, p.102-103)

  In addition to Ibn Muqla’s political eventful life, there is another great innovation which made him notable in the entire Islamic cultural history as the one of the best calligrapher. Ibn Mulqa had created the new style of calligraphy with introducing the angular and lines, and systemized the style of the calligraphy. Ibn Muqla was born in the calligrapher family; his father and his grand father were calligrapher as well as his brother, son and grand children. (Islam, n.d., p1-2)

  Since the Muhammad’s death, Quran was succeeded through oral transmission and at the same time the attempts to record Quran as the texts had been continued and paid great attention toward calligraphy and developed it because God favor the beautiful and graceful writing, as we can see in the sixty-eighty chapter of the Quran: “By the pen and what they inscribe, you, by the grace of God, are not possessed.” (Robinson, p.101)
 

Calligrapher unknown. 9th century. 7.5 x 4 cm. Kufic script.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Divisionhttp://calligraphyqalam.com/gallery/index.php?album=period-1-2-EarlyPeriodBaghdad&image=1-85-154.76a.jpg

 This style developed originally for the writing in the stone in the third and fourth century in the city of the Kufa in which is located southern Iraq, and dominated the majority of the calligraphy until the era of the Ibn Muqla and had used by the thirteenth century. (Robinson,101-102)
 

Calligrapher: unknown. 9th century. 21 x 14 cm. Kufic script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.http://calligraphyqalam.com/gallery/index.php?album=period-1-2-EarlyPeriodBaghdad&image=A-11.jpg    

the circle and dots
http://calligraphyqalam.com/people/ibn-muqla.html

  The basic styles of the Islamic calligraphy which has been used until today had systemized by Ibn Muqla. He formulated the devise of the six writings, called al aqlam al-sitta, the ideal proportion style of Arabic letter which was known as al-nisbah al-fadhelah and the dots in the sentence. In the bureau of the documentation and calligraphy, Ibn Muqla had a great project to create new canonical Quran copies, while he established the systematic Arabic characters. He introduced the idea of the circle in the first Arabic alphabet, alif. The vertically long character became the diameter of the circle and based on this circle would become the guideline for rest of characters by caring about kerbing, composing, underlining, and decolorization.

         In addition, his invention of the dots wchich allowed calligrapher to measure the proportions of the letter had the huge effect on the later system of calligraphy. Another innovation of the calligraphy which was created by Ibn Muqla were, as mentioned above, the six scripts; Muhaqqaq, Thuluth, Rayani, Naskh, Tawiql’, and Riqa. 

the six scripts,al aqlam al-sitta
http://calligraphyqalam.com/people/ibn-muqla.html

        Based on the calligraphic principle of these scripts, later calligrapher was inspired from them and allowed to apply to other words, and then the development of the calligraphic expression would see further growth in this period.  (Islam, p3-4)
        
         Unfortunately the original handwriting of Ibn Muqla were not existed today, however his family’s works were treasured and stored the state library by the later caliphs in the thirteenth century. And the name of Ibn Muqla was inscribed the history of Islamic calligraphy and had been appearing as the one of the best calligrapher. 

Reference

Robinson, Chase F. (2016,) “ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION in THIRTY LIVES The First 1,000 years,” University of California Press, Oakland, California

Islam, Moniul. () “Ibn Muqla: The Prophet of Islami Calligraphy”

https://www.academia.edu/9083267/Ibn_Mukla_The_prophet_of_Islami_Calligraphy (03/12/2017 viewed)

Tabbaa, Yasser. (1999,) “Canonicity and Control: The sociopolitical Underpinnings of Ibn Muqla’s Reform,” ARS Orientalis, Vol. 29, pp.91-100

“The History of Islamic Calligraphy” Asian Art Museum

http://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/background-information/history-islamic-calligraphy (03/12/2017 viewed)

“Ibn Muqla,” (n.d) Calligraphy Qalam.com An Introduction to Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian Callligraphy

http://calligraphyqalam.com/people/ibn-muqla.html (03/12/2017 viewed)

“Kufic and Maghribi”, Calligraphy Qalam.com An Introduction to Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian Callligraphy

http://calligraphyqalam.com/styles/kufic-maghribi.html (03/12/2017 viewed)