Are you looking for Islamic art for sale online? If you are looking up online Islamic art, you would be sure to find different kinds of Islamic calligraphy, which is the art of inscribing passages from the Glorious Quran in stylish fonts. Calligraphy is done in almost all scripts but the Arabic script comes out exceptionally striking in calligraphy. As Arabic calligraphy primarily got developed after the establishment of Islam as the principal faith in Arabia, it has become synonymous with Islamic calligraphy. It would help us to briefly the different fonts of Arabic calligraphy.

1) Kufic: Among the oldest fonts in which the Quran was reportedly inscribed, the Kufic font came about in the 7th century AD in of Kufa, Iraq. Then, it is said that the Arabic alphabet had few or no diacritical marks. But as non-Arabs began to convert to Islam and were unfamiliar with Arabic, diacritical symbols were introduced in the script to facilitate ease of reading. The Kufic font has horizontal strokes and round characters with tiny counters.

In the 10th century, the Kufic style gave way to Naskh font for the purpose of inscribing the Quran though it continued to be used for decorative purposes.

1. Naskh: This cursive style became popular as it offered ease in both reading and writing. The Naskh font continues to be the standard font even today for inscribing the Holy Quran. It is the default font of the standard Arabic script and is used in newspapers, periodicals, official correspondence, and private letters. 

2. Thuluth: Thuluth, somewhat similar to Naskh, is a very ornate font of writing the Arabic script. ‘Thuluth’ is an Arabic word for ‘one third’. One-third of the letters are straight in this font. It has quite a striking, magnificent look largely due to the long, vertical lines and strokes, wide gaps between the letters as well as emphatic dots and diacritical marks. These qualities render it best for Islamic calligraphy art and used very much on buildings and monuments. The Taj Mahal in India, just to give a very good and popular example, has Thuluth calligraphy on its walls.  

3. Natalie: This simple yet brilliant regional font emerged in Persia. Used for non-religious purposes like writing court documents, its Arabic name ta'liqmeans “hanging”. It is used for writing in Farsi and Urdu, the letters slope towards the left slightly, giving the script a hanging look.

4. DiwaniJaali: This font was developed in the 16th century in the Ottoman empire. It is an extremely ornate and intricate school of writing – the letters are tilted, and the narrow gaps between them are covered with decorative dots. The Diwani Jaali font is not easy to read and was therefore used in writing secret scrolls of the ‘diwan’ or royal court. Nowadays, its decorativeness makes it popular in Arabic calligraphy art. This basic knowledge of Arabic fonts would be of benefit to you if you are searching for Islamic art for sale online or simply online Islamic art.