Significance of Epigraphy in the Islamic Architecture Emphasized on the Epigraphies in Enghelab Courtyard of Imam Reza Shrine

The Imam Reza shrine is a kind of museum with varieties of Islamic arts. In this museum the art masterpieces are related to different historical periods. The age of this great museum is more than thirteen centuries. This is a well-known museum because of the valuable position of the holy shrine of ‘Alī ibn Mūsā ar-Riḍā. There are too much epigraphies around this place. These epigraphies have been repaired by the consideration to their history. There are too many epigraphies from Timurid Empire in the Enghelab Courtyard of Haram. Another name of this courtyard is ancient courtyard. These epigraphies indicate the social conditions of each period. The current research is descriptive-analytic. Library studies and also field studies were used in this research. The findings of this research indicate that epigraphy in the Islamic architecture has an effective role in order to create the spiritualty spirit within the building. This kind of art is derived from the spiritual essence of Holy Quran. Therefore, the purpose of epigraphy in the holy shrine of ‘Alī ibn Mūsā ar-Riḍā is creation of spiritual communication between God and man. The recent studies show that most of the epigraphies are derivd from Safavid era. Most of their concepts are related to the religious contexts

Recognition of off-line printed Arabic text using Hidden Markov Models.

yesThis paper describes a technique for automatic recognition of off-line printed Arabic text using Hidden Markov Models. In this work different sizes of overlapping and non-overlapping hierarchical windows are used to generate 16 features from each vertical sliding strip. Eight different Arabic fonts were used for testing (viz. Arial, Tahoma, Akhbar, Thuluth, Naskh, Simplified Arabic, Andalus, and Traditional Arabic). It was experimentally proven that different fonts have their highest recognition rates at different numbers of states (5 or 7) and codebook sizes (128 or 256). Arabic text is cursive, and each character may have up to four different shapes based on its location in a word. This research work considered each shape as a different class, resulting in a total of 126 classes (compared to 28 Arabic letters). The achieved average recognition rates were between 98.08% and 99.89% for the eight experimental fonts. The main contributions of this work are the novel hierarchical sliding window technique using only 16 features for each sliding window, considering each shape of Arabic characters as a separate class, bypassing the need for segmenting Arabic text, and its applicability to other languages

Modern Arabic Calligraphic-Based Logos: The Influence of Traditional Arabic Calligraphy on Modern Arabic Calligraphic-based Logo Designs

Calligraphy in the Arabic language is an ancient form of communication and a method of documenting history. The Arabic script started in a very simple form with characters similar to each other. However, through the years, many developments have occurred within this form of communication. These developments were created by several artists and calligraphers, which resulted in generating a variety of styles of scripts with unique treatments. Since the twentieth century, these traditional calligraphic styles have started to lose their importance, and the use of modern Arabic calligraphy is becoming more dominant, especially in the fields of modern design such as graphic design. However, traditional Arabic calligraphy still has a noticeable impact on modern Arabic designs. This thesis introduces a new way of understanding the influence of traditional Arabic calligraphy on modern Arabic calligraphic-based logo designs. The process is accomplished by explaining and substantiating these influences in a step-by-step study applied on six selected Arabic calligraphic-based logos. As a conclusion, the study confirms a strong influence of traditional Arabic calligraphy on modern Arabic calligraphic-based logo designs

Islamic art and language as a source of inspiration leading to traditional Arabic calligraphy art

The Islamic art has developed from different kind of visual art. Arabic calligraphy is one of the most prominent arts starting from the revolution of the Quran and has a long history. This paper will help to provide some sources of information that can be used by people who would like to understand and study the Islamic calligraphy and Islamic art. Also, this paper is connecting the Arabic language to universal spirituality and express how Arabic calligraphy has become a prominent feature in Islamic world. Indeed, this paper provides a brief of the long history of Islamic calligraphy, explains about some of various of Arabic fonts style, and some important Quranic colour that has significant in the Islamic culture. Arabic calligraphy, which is also known as Islamic calligraphy, has a long history of development starting from the first written form of the Quran, in the early 7th century. The Arabic calligraphy art presents how to understand and appreciate its varied styles and modes. Calligraphers start creating their art by using some passages from the Quran or Arabic poems as a starting point then they develop their compositions in a complex and intricate piece of art by the overlap of Arabic letter and words that integrate. Arabic calligraphy is about movement, rhythm and dynamism as seen through the calligraphic marks in most mosques or Islamic building or Islamic calligraphy painting. Islamic calligraphy presents the aspect of aesthetic principles and demonstrate the love for Arabic language and culture with the aesthetic methods of traditional Arabic art

Generating an Arabic Calligraphy Text Blocks for Global Texture Analysis

This paper objective is to improve the current method for generating an Arabic Calligraphy text blocks. We test on seven types of Arabic Calligraphy text. We apply  projection profiles and a proposed filter to discriminate each line of the Arabic Calligraphy scripts. After performing text detection, skew correction, text and line normalization subsequently, we generate Arabic Calligraphy text blocks for global texture analysis purposes. We compare our proposed filter with current method and median filter. The results show that the proposed filter  is outperformed. The proposed method can be further  improved to boost the overall performance

SOME UNPUBLISHED LANTERNS IN THE ISLAMIC ART MUSEUM IN CAIRO ‬"ANALYTICAL, HISTORICAL AND ARTISTIC STUDY"

This paper aims to study some unpublished lanterns, preserved in the Islamic Art Museum in Cairo through analytical, historical and artistic study. In general, the lanterns are oil lamps and usually with a large round bulbous body, reaching to a narrower center, where above it is the flaming top section. These lanterns can be placed on a surface, however they were commonly suspended by chains and in these chains there were some loops on the outer surface of the body of lanterns that were used to light mosques or any other architectural buildings during Islamic times and in order to light large areas in groups of lanterns, hanging from a metal frame that had the form of a circle, these circular frames continued to be used in many mosques till nowadays. In researching for the collections and antiques, preserved in the Islamic Art Museum in Cairo, it is observed, that there are some unpublished lanterns, have not been discussed and have not been concentrated and strongly investigated by researchers. This study seeks to discuss these unpublished lanterns that include a significant layout of artistic styles, this is besides the historical and archaeological value of these lanterns. The methodology of this study will be addressed through descriptive, historical, artistic and analytical study; this will be revealed through discussion, investigation, analysis that can be detected through detailed interrogation of the objects, elements and structure of the content of this study

Arabic Type Classification System - Qualitative Classification of Historic Arabic Writing Scripts in the Contemporary Typographic Context

The emergence of typography shifted written language into a mechanical tool of transmitting meaning, thereby further reducing the connection of representation of language with the language itself which began with the development of writing systems. Developed from various writing systems and languages, typography is the primary mode of visual communication of language. It has become even more important in the digital world we are living in today. This research examines the relationship of Arabic script conventions and classifications in the context of typographic representation, and how typographic representations of the Arabic language have been distorted due to the influence of Latin typographic guidelines in the development of Arabic typefaces. This history has failed to produce Arabic typefaces that accord with the unique cultural, linguistic and contextual character of the Arabic writing system. To address this, an investigation was carried out, through multiple design research methods and methodologies incorporating typographic studies and theories of embodiment applied to the evolution of the Arabic writing system, calligraphy and typography in the Arab region. The investigation aims to better understand, and respond to problems in the use of typefaces at the intersection of languages and cultures. Through the generation of a typeface classificatory system, linking the ground rules of calligraphic scripts, structural influences of Arabic letterforms, and adapting them into existing typefaces used today, this research proposes a tool to assist designers in the making of typographic decisions in the setting of Arabic language, and in its relationship to roman typography. Key words : Typography, classificatory attributes, Arabic language, culture, linguistics, embodimen