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Mashq

Saad D. Abulhab: The Mashq script is the oldest documented Arabic Jazm calligraphy style. It was invented by the early Muslims in the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, exclusively for writing the Quran and other Islamic religious texts. The Mashq style employed complex ligature and multi-level baseline rules, and therefore it went through a continuous simplification process. Around the time period Mashq was developed, the early Arab Muslims experimented with another short-lived Mashq-like style with heavily slanted vertical stems, which closely resembled the common Ḥijazi style. This style is commonly referred to as the Ma'il (slanted) style. Eventually, the early complex Mashq style was replaced as the main Islamic Arabic script, by a more simplified Mashq-derived calligraphy style that was developed in the city of Kufa, modern day Iraq, which was commonly referred to as Kufi. The Kufic style became the official Arabic script style for centuries before it was replaced by the more developed Naskh, the modern Arabic script style used today.

For a digital implementation, one can try Mashq (2016) by Arabetics. They offer three subfamilies:

• Mashq regular: this closely follows the script style of MusḥaUthman (currently displayed in the Topkapi Museum in Turkey) with only the initial and final Haa baselines shifting.
• Mashq Maail: this emphasizes the features of the Ma'il style shared with Mashq.
• Mashq Kufi: this closely follows the script style in some Quran manuscripts found in the Bergstraesser Archive.

All three fonts include two styles, with and without Tashkeel (dots). The Mashq and Mashq Kufi fonts include two more styles, with and without Harakat (soft vowels), and Hamza. Only three soft vowels are implemented along with their Tanween (double) forms. The Sukoon vowel is the default shape before inserting a soft vowel.

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Typefaces and type design for Arabic ⦿