L’àdab
del cal·lígraf (2)
Pablo
Khalid Casado
The Water and the
Ink
[…] Something
similar happens with the water we use to mix the ink. During the Ottoman
Empire, calligraphers would only use rain water to make their own inks. As they
say, rain is “Rahmatullah”, which means “mercy from God”. This is why, the
calligraphers considered it the purest water they could use.
Nowadays, as well
as rain water, we use rose water or distilled water, in an effort to avoid
using tap water. This is because we are not sure if the pipes this water is
passing through are completely clean; we don’t want to write something which
has a sacred meaning for us with something which might be dirty or not pure
enough.
The ink we use is
made by soot, Arabic gum and water. In the past, calligraphers used to collect
the soot from the oil lamp that illuminate the mosques and use that to make
their own inks. The famous ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, also known as Sinan
the Architect, for example, ordered his disciples to build a small room atop
the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul during the construction phase. All the soot
from the lamps were diverted to this room, where, once a year, calligraphers used
to go and scratch the soot pasted at the walls and the roof; they would use tis
soot in preparing their ink.
The calligraphers
would use this ink to write the copies of Qur’an. They would later give these
copies to the mosque as a charity. In other words, what originated in the
mosque in a soot form, came back later to the same place in a beautiful handwritten
Qur’an form and would stay there for a long time.
Pablo Khalid
Casado, The art of Islamic Calligraphy:
Rituals and Traditional Art. themaydan.com January 8, 2018.
Cal·ligrafia: Núria García Masip. https://nuriaart.com/. In this piece by Nuria García, we see a composition where this big letter "ha" stands out. This letter is used by Sufis during their sessions of meditation to reach the "hal", which is a sate of consciousness that is supposed to be in a higher level than the ordinary state and that brings you closer to your being, your essence, and therefore, your Lord.
Cal·ligrafia: Núria García Masip. https://nuriaart.com/. In this piece by Nuria García, we see a composition where this big letter "ha" stands out. This letter is used by Sufis during their sessions of meditation to reach the "hal", which is a sate of consciousness that is supposed to be in a higher level than the ordinary state and that brings you closer to your being, your essence, and therefore, your Lord.
