Muthanna / Mirror Writing in Islamic Calligraphy - History, Theory, and Aesthetics

In doing so, this study elaborates on the vital links between outward form and inner meaning in Islamic calligraphy.

List of contents

A Note on Transcription and Translation

Introduction: Axes



Part I: A History of Mirror Writing

1. Perspectives: Previous Scholarship on Mirror Writing

2. Foundations: The Practice of Mirror Writing

3. Orientations: Reversed and Repeated Writing in Non-Arabic and Arabic Scripts

4. Convergences: Mirror Writing in Greek and Arabic

5. Diffractions: Mirror Writing in Arabic



Part II: A Theory of Mirror Writing

6. Reflections: Mirrors in Islamic Studies

7. Illuminations: A New Discourse on Mirror Writing

8. Directions: The Single-Letter Muthanna

9. Receptions: Multiletter and Multiword Muthannas

10. Projections: Calligraphic Nazires and Mobility



Conclusion: Refractions

Works Consulted

Index

About the author

Esra Ak¿n-K¿vanc is Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of South Florida's School of Art and Art History. She is author of Mustafa Âli's Epic Deeds of Artists: A Critical Edition of the Earliest Ottoman Text about the Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World and coauthor of Sinan's Autobiographies: Five Sixteenth-Century Texts.

Summary

In doing so, this study elaborates on the vital links between outward form and inner meaning in Islamic calligraphy.

Product details

• Authors: Ak&, Esra Akin-Kivanc
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.05.2020
• EAN: 9780253049209
• ISBN: 978-0-253-04920-9
• No. of pages: 352
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; Architektonische Struktur und Gestaltung, Architektur: Kirchen, Sakralbauten, Architecture, ART / Techniques / Calligraphy, ARCHITECTURE / Decoration & Ornament, ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Religious