tour 3 of 25
Word into art
Ghani Alani (Iraq-France), Untitled, blue and red inks on hand-coloured paper
This calligraphy, in blue and red ink, is a
transcription of a well-known verse from the Qur'an.
Unusually, it is in a horizontal scroll format. Ghani Alani has
used a script called
muhaqqaq, which
literally means 'meticulously produced'. It is one
of the cursive scripts developed in the medieval period and
favoured for ornamental
inscriptions.
This
Qur'anic verse is regarded as particularly potent and
protective and is frequently written on
amulets:
'In the
Name of God the Merciful the
Compassionate
God.
There
is no god but He, the
Living, the
Everlasting,
Slumber seizes Him not, neither
sleep;
To Him belongs
All
that is in the heavens and the earth.
Who is
there that shall intercede with Him
Save by
His leave?
He knows what lies before
them
And what is after
them,
And they comprehend not anything of His
knowledge
Save such as He
wills.
His Throne comprises the heavens and
the earth;
The preserving of them oppresses
Him not;
He is the All-high, the
All-glorious.'
(Qur'an 2:
255)
The text shown in the
illustration is just the Basmala (the phrase 'In the Name
of God the Merciful the Compassionate', which introduces
every chapter of the Qur'an) and the beginning of the
chapter. The whole scroll is 449
cm.
Alani was born in
Baghdad and studied both law and art. He practised calligraphy from
an early age, studying under the Iraqi master calligrapher Hashem
Muhammad al-Baghdadi. Since 1993 he has been in charge of
calligraphy at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure,
Paris.