International studio (81.1925)

inceRHACionAL

of Yazyly, so-called because of the writing which
covers its walls, to see a single letter, a " v," which
bears his signature. It is one of the few works of
Abdallah which remain.

Abdallah, like many another genius, did not
make his entry on the stage of life at the proper
time. Had he lived earlier, before the forms of
Moslem writing had become more or less petrified,
his inventive twist might have given him the
renown of Mokla or of Yakout, the greatest of the
Arabian masters.

At that, Mokla, as he was called, or Abou Ali
Mohammed ibn Ali ibn Mokla, as he was named,
had a career which Abdallah might not have
envied. Mokla was born in 886. That is to say,
he lived in that stirring epoch we have all read
about in the Arabian Nights. And he was one of
the characters who made the Bagdad of those
tales. The name of Mokla is as celebrated in the
Moslem world as that of Leonardo da Vinci in
ours. He is known in Islam as the Imam or the
King of Calligraphers. Before his time the Arabs
wrote only in what is called the cufic style, from
the city of Cula, one of early intellectual centres
of Arabia, where it was created after the death of
Mohammed. Cufic is used to this day—chiefly
now for ornamental purposes—and many prefer
it to any other style.

Mokla took the stiff cufic letters, rounded their
angles and made them flow gracefully across the
page. So great was the popularity of this new
style, called naskh, that it caused cufic to disap-
pear entirely for a century. Naskb is still a
favorite. But it was not merely by this invention
that the King of Calligraphers won his title. To
him is attributed the formation of the basic rules
of the art. So great was his renown that three of
the caliphs, Moktadir, Kahir and Radi, made
him their prime minister. But when this artist
got into politics his fate was worse than that of
Paderewski. He was the victim of each of these
caliphs, suffering torture and confiscation of his
goods from all of them.

As long as he had the use of his famous right
arm which had copied the Koran twice, these little
ups and downs didn't bother the King of Callig-
raphers. But the third time he fell into disfavor
he lost it. One of his personal enemies at court,
Ibn Raik, accused him of plotting against Caliph
Radi, who ordered Mokla's right hand to be cut
off at the wrist. The caliph later repented and
had him nursed but the hand could not be restored.

Mokla, however, had a pen attached to his
wrist and wrote in this fashion, to prove that he
was still able to occupy the post of minister. Ibn
Raik saw the point and contrived to obtain

another order from the caliph whereby Mokla's
tongue was cut out and he was kept in prison
until his death in 940. Having no one to serve him
in prison, Mokla had to get his water from a well
by using his left hand and his teeth alternately
on the rope. While in power, the King of Callig-
raphers lived in great splendor and was known for
his unlimited generosity. He gave to the poor
much of his riches, and when he had little himself
he gave them models of his writing which they
could sell for large sums. Even so, the works in
calligraphy left in his estate when he died sold for
1,600,000 dinars.

In the eyes of the Moslems, however, the
greatest of all the thousands of master calligra-
phers was Yakout, known to them as the Model
Penman. It is said that the number of his copies
of the Koran reached that favorite figure of the
East, one thousand and one. Several of his Korans
may still be seen in Stamboul in the library of St.
Sofia, the tomb of Sultan Selim and the tomb of
Hamid at Baghcheh Kapou.

Yakout lived in the thirteenth century in
Bagdad where he was the slave of Mostasem, the
last of the Abbasside caliphs. Mostasem honored
him as few slaves or freemen were ever honored.
In the hope of seeing the benefactions of the caliph
increase and extend also to his pupils, Yakout
never stopped writing, each day presenting his
works to his master. But Mostasem, despite his
esteem for Yakout, never ceased to praise the
writing of Ibn Bawwab and to say that he pre-
ferred it to that of his favorite. One day the
crafty Yakout wrote two lines, signing one with
Bawwab's name and the other with his own and
presented them to the caliph. Unsuspecting the
ruse, Mostasem as usual preferred the work of
Bawwab.

"Allah be thanked!" cried Yakout. "At last
the caliph has judged worthy of praise the writing
of his humble slave!"

It was long before Yakout regained the favor
of his outraged master. After this incident, it is
said, Yakout's writing lost in elegance and ceased
to progress. Which proves, gravely remarks Habib
Effendi, the Turkish historian of calligraphy, that
progress in everything comes from zeal and emu-
lation.

After the death of Yakout, the Persians and
the Turks made the greatest contributions to
calligraphy. Among the Persians the great mas-
ters were Mir Ali, Omar Akta and Mir Imad.
The first two were contemporaries of Timurlane.
Mir Ali created the style known as nastalik. He
credited the invention to Ah, the son-m-Iaw of
the Prophet and the hero of the Persian Moslems,

three forty-eight

august 1925