Calligraphy

I love the amazingly artistic forms of calligraphy of the Muslims. Calligraphy in the Islamic cultures provides a link between the languages of the Muslims and the religion of Islam. The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters and 18 different forms of writing making it as decorative as it is communicative. Calligraphy has become to Islam what the vast number of religious Icons, drawings and statues are to the Eastern Orthodox church. Muslims do not allow the use of figurative art in holy places and mosques as they saw the overuse of human images and statues in churches as a step back to older forms of pagan and Roman idolatry. The adoration of pictures and statues of the saints, Mary and even Jesus was seen as taking away from the worship of the one God. So calligraphy replaced religious icons in holy places as the main form of spiritual and artistic expression.