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

Muthanna is an Islamic calligraphy style that combines a source text and its mirror image on a horizontal or vertical axis. It elaborates on various scripts through compositional arrangements, such as doubling, superimposing, and stacking. Despite its centuries-old history and popularity, scholarship on the form has remained limited and flawed. This study explores the relationship between subject and object in muthanna, emphasizing the links between outward form and inner meaning in Islamic calligraphy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2020
Publisher: Indiana University Press

Muthanna, also known as mirror writing, is a captivating style of Islamic calligraphy that consists of a source text and its mirror image placed symmetrically on a horizontal or vertical axis. This style elaborates on various scripts such as Kufic, naskh, and muhaqqaq through compositional arrangements, including doubling, superimposing, and stacking. Muthanna is found in diverse media, ranging from architecture, textiles, and tiles to paper, metalwork, and woodwork. Despite its centuries-old history and popularity in countries from Iran to Spain, scholarship on the form has remained limited and flawed.

Muthanna / Mirror Writing in Islamic Calligraphy provides a comprehensive study of the text and its forms, beginning with an explanation of the visual principles and techniques used in its creation. Author Esra Akın-Kıvanc explores muthanna's relationship to similar forms of writing in Judaic and Christian contexts, as well as the specifically Islamic contexts within which symmetrically mirrored compositions reached full fruition, were assigned new meanings, and transformed into more complex visual forms. Throughout, Akın-Kıvanc imaginatively plays on the implicit relationship between subject and object in muthanna by examining the point of view of the artist, the viewer, and the work of art. In doing so, this study elaborates on the vital links between outward form and inner meaning in Islamic calligraphy.

Muthanna / Mirror Writing in Islamic Calligraphy is a groundbreaking exploration of the text and its forms, offering a fresh perspective on the art of calligraphy. Through its detailed analysis and imaginative interpretation, this study provides a valuable contribution to the field of Islamic art and culture.

Weight: 954g
Dimension: 186 x 261 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780253049209