Islamic art has been around for centuries. It is based on the beliefs of Muslims. You will never see a human form in a piece of artwork, as Muslims believe that Allah (God) should never be drawn, so most of their artwork is constructed using shapes and the Arabic language.

Arabic belongs to a group of languages called Semitic, because they use mainly consonants, and vowels are not a necessity to anyone who speaks the language fluently, but are of much help to people who have just began the language, or people who it is their second language. Arabic, along with Hebrew and all the Phoenician alphabets came from a one of the first alphabets, the North Semitic, from which also based the Greek alphabet, who added the vowels to the languages. This skeleton was created in around 1700 B.C in Palestine and Syria, and had 28 letters in it.

Arabic has 22 letters, and 18 symbols, it has been adapted for different countries since the spread of Islam, and remains to be the main language of the Quran.

There are many different Calligraphy styles in Arabic, to name a few, Naskhi, Thuluth, Nastalic, which all come under the Kufic category.

Early calligraphy scripts

The North Arabic script was influenced by the Nabatian script. This script was established in North-East Arabia, and became a widely spoken dialect in around the 5th centaury. The two main styles are pretty much the same however, the moist style, and the dry style.

A history of Arabic art.

Islamic art is commonly described in art books as an art with only theological boundaries. It is an art found wildly in Muslim countries. They use mainly geological shapes as the Islamic religion forbids any images with humans in, as they are very cautious about idol worship.

The art style uses a repeating pattern, usually a floral, or vegetation pattern, these are called arabesques.

The pattern below is a repeating pattern with some Arabic calligraphic writing. It uses the basics of the floral pattern repeated in the corners, and the simple circle pattern in the middle, with Arabic calligraphy used to create the circle pattern. It is a random jumble of letters, and vowels from the Arabic Alphabet.