Islamic art and calligraphy

WALT: To understand how people can express themselves through art - the use of Calligraphy. WILF: Level 4: Can describe what calligraphy is and be able to write their name with some artistic flair to it. Level 5: Can explain what calligraphy is and be able to write their name with artistic flair. Level 6: Can evaluate the importance of calligraphy to Muslims and be able to write their name creatively in calligraphy style. Level 7: Can critically evaluate the effectiveness of calligraphy for Muslims and be able to write their name creatively in calligraphy style. For ALL levels: to be able to produce a piece of art that has calligraphy. the higher your level the more detail and creativity you should produce it in!

Write your first name into your exercise books. Starter Write your first name into your exercise books. The catch is that you must write it in a really unique way. Make it look like a real piece of art. Make a drawing out of it if you can! You have 5 minutes.

If someone is wearing a turban – then more than likely he is a Sikh If a lady wears a headscarf – you can tell that quite likely she’s a Muslim. If a man has a beard – then you can usually tell that more than likely he might be Muslim or a Jew. If someone is wearing a turban – then more than likely he is a Sikh If someone wears a crucifix – then that person more than likely is a Christian. Are these effective ways of expressing religious beliefs? What do you think? Class discussion on what they think and why. The more developed the answer with explanations and evaluation – the higher the level.

Calligraphy is the most highly regarded and very important element of Islamic art. As Muslims are not allowed to draw anything that has a soul (humans and animals), they had to turn to other ways of drawing.

Muslims decided that what better form of art than to make the words from their holy book – (the Qur’an) really beautiful? This way, a Muslim can really appreciate the beauty of God’s words. So he can look at the piece of art, admire it, yet at the same time – please God by reciting the verse(s) of the Qur’an! The pictures on either side are pages taken from different copies of the Qur’an. It is very pleasant to look at it whilst reading – enjoying the art and reading God’s words.

Another reason calligraphy was used Is that as Muslims wanted to express their beliefs as well as belief in God through art. By painting the words of God this shows that God is beautiful and so are his words – therefore nothing but the best is good for him. It also shows that as Muslims, they appreciated beauty and that they could express what they believed about God and their religion by writing out the words as neatly as possible and in a beautiful way. This also showed how much devotion they had for their religion and God by spending so much time in making his words look beautiful.

Take a look at the following pictures. They are all art pieces of calligraphy. Not one of these pictures is a DRAWING of a human or animal, however, some pictures are words that are written in a way to make a picture. Write down into your books what you think the picture is of. While you are looking at the pictures – I want you to also think about describing what you saw altogether in one word and why you chose that word.

This is a verse from the Qur’an. What is the picture of? The Qur’an is written in Arabic which is written from right to left (the opposite way of English!) This is a verse from the Qur’an. What is the picture of?

The next three slides have the inscription of: ‘In the name of God, the most merciful, the most beneficent’ See how differently they are written.

Objects from different historical periods and regions vary in the use of calligraphy in their overall design. Here a some more creative possibilities showing the art of calligraphy.

Let’s see what you can do with this! Turn it into something more beautiful than this! Or this…

I want you to express a feeling or a thought or a belief of yours. Now it’s YOUR turn to create something artistic using the skill of Calligraphy. I want you to express a feeling or a thought or a belief of yours. Think of something you’d like to draw. Then try to write out your name or the name of the object you would like to draw in that shape. Have a go!

Is calligraphy an effective way of expressing religious beliefs? Final task: Is calligraphy an effective way of expressing religious beliefs? Give reasons for your answer. (Think about: Why people write calligraphy how people might feel when they see calligraphy.)